Colorado Springs auto store assists drivers who can’t afford automobile repairs | Subscriber Content material

The day Stephanie Knox introduced her automobile to Adam & Son Auto Restore and Service was the day her luck modified.

Adam & Son claims to be the primary and solely social influence auto restore store within the nation, offering applications that serve the group by providers and donations.

Knox, a receptionist at Peak Vista Group Well being Facilities and a mom of two ladies ages 7 and 4, misplaced her home and was hit by a collection of well being points together with a coronary heart assault earlier than the age of 35.

“Every part that might have gone incorrect in my world went incorrect,” Knox mentioned.

So when Knox purchased a used automobile with an sudden oil leak, her luck didn’t seem like getting higher.

“I used to be actually cautious how far we might drive with the leak,” Knox mentioned. “We didn’t go loads of locations till I might get it fastened.”

That was till her engine gave out.

“Driving in the future, I heard a loud clunk and I used to be like, ‘You’ve received to be joking.’”

The primary auto restore store Knox introduced her automobile to instructed her it could price $7,000 to repair her automobile — the engine wanted to be rebuilt.

“My jaw hit the ground,” Knox mentioned.

Knox couldn’t afford a $7,000 restore to a automobile she purchased roughly 4 months prior, so she took her automobile in for a second opinion at Adam & Son.

The information was the identical, however this time the result was totally different. The worker serving to Knox instructed her she might apply for a program the store ran known as the Stranded Motorist Fund.

“He was my angel in disguise,” Knox mentioned.

The Stranded Motorist Fund is one in every of Adam & Son’s social influence applications that helps individuals in the neighborhood who can’t afford automobile repairs get their automobile fastened.

“It was in 2020 once we noticed an amazing want in our group right here. Individuals simply couldn’t afford to repair their automobiles,” mentioned Dan Adam, the enterprise’ founder and proprietor.

“It’s actually powerful to be a service adviser standing in entrance of a buyer and you may see it of their eyes, they can’t afford to repair their automobile, and it occurs very constantly.”

And so the Stranded Motorist Fund was fashioned. It’s sustained by grant cash, fundraising and buyer donations however has largely been funded by Adam.

Native organizations, together with faculties with mother and father who can’t get their youngsters to class as a result of automobile troubles, have reached out to the Stranded Motorist Fund for help. Transferring ahead, Adam hopes to not solely assist with native wants, however develop the Stranded Motorist Fund nationwide by partnering with different auto outlets.

“What we don’t wish to do is simply present a handout and it doesn’t resolve something they usually’re again subsequent week searching for extra help,” Adam mentioned.

“What we actually wish to search for is any individual that if we are able to get their automobile fastened, they will hold their job or get employed and it will probably hold them going … that’s our supreme recipient we’d like to assist.”

Since its inception, the Stranded Motorist Fund has offered $130,000 value of repairs, in keeping with the enterprise’ web site.

However the fund wasn’t the primary social influence dimension of the enterprise. Adam began by fundraising for charities, golf equipment and organizations by donating three- and five-pack oil adjustments that organizations might then promote to earn cash.

Since then, the enterprise’ social influence initiatives have grown to assist the Trifecta Program in addition to the Pay it Ahead Program, which gives clients who obtain a reduction a chance to “pay it ahead” by donating to the Stranded Motorist Fund or the Angels of America’s Fallen. Adam & Son will match donations as much as $100.

Adam & Son was acknowledged for its social influence efforts by the Springs-based Nationwide Institute for Social Affect, incomes Social Affect Startup of the 12 months in 2022.

“There are such a lot of advantages to being a social influence enterprise,” Adam mentioned. “Actually for us, it’s having a enterprise constructed round fixing an issue.”

Adam & Son solved Knox’s drawback of a $7,000 automobile restore that loomed over her head. She was accepted by the Stranded Motorist Fund, and Adam & Son rebuilt her engine for $200.

“(It) drove prefer it was new,” Knox mentioned. “They went above and past to make it one thing particular for me.”