CARSS Lends A Helping Hand...

CARSS Auto Shop in Crystal Lake, Home of The Sparrow and Big Brothers and Big Sisters of McHenry County recently helped ensure a local mother with two special needs children had a reliable car to transport her kids.

Diane, a mother of 2, contacted Michelle at Home of The Sparrow because she desperately needed car repairs on her older vehicle. Diane didn’t have any money to fix it, her car was acting up and she needed safe transportation to drive her children back and forth to their special needs schools, one of which is 40 miles away. One of her children also needed a therapy dog, which she couldn’t pick up until her car was drivable. Michelle at Home of The Sparrow knew that Big Brothers and Big Sisters might be able to help so she contacted them.

She spoke to Linda, a caseworker from Big Brothers and Big Sisters of McHenry County who contacted Chris from CARSS to see if he could help. Chris said he could speak with Diane to see if he could help her in any way. Diane was worried she couldn’t afford the extensive repairs the car needed and told us, “I’d used every penny I had a few years ago to buy this car.” She called Chris anyway and told us that, “He set an appointment that day to look it over.” Diane told us that, “Chris was so wonderful and provided transportation from the shop so she could get home after dropping her car off.”

Once Chris had time to look over the car, he decided he needed to step in to fix her car to ensure that it not only was running, but also was safe for her to transport her children.

Once the car was fixed and safe to drive, Chris called Diane to set up a time to pick her up and bring her back to the shop to get it. To Diane’s surprise, Chris had not only fixed the car, but also did it all for free.

Linda, a case manager at Big Brothers Big Sisters, applauded Chris and CARSS’ generosity in saying, “He was so generous and handed her the keys back once the car was finished and it was free of charge,” Linda said. “Chris was just interested in helping her and giving back to the community so he put a decent amount of money into an older car that had over 200,000 miles on it to help this mom of two.”

Leslie, a manager at Big Brothers Big Sisters of McHenry County, said Chris and CARSS are a benefit to the community; “How Chris meets the needs of the community with a program like this is amazing.”