Vegas Families Receive Refurbished Cars at SEMA

Nov. 14, 2014—Four formerly homeless Las Vegas families visited the SEMA Show last week and left proud owners of refurbished cars presented by members of the National Auto Body Council (NABC) at its annual Recycled Rides Luncheon.

The four families were selected by Family Promise of Las Vegas, which has partnered with the NABCl for the past seven years to provide at-risk families in Las Vegas with reliable transportation so they can begin to rebuild and regain financial stability.

NABC’s Recycled Rides program is a unique collaboration of the collision industry. Since the program’s inception in 2007, repairers, insurers, rental car companies, and suppliers have teamed up to restore and donate over 1,000 vehicles to individuals and nonprofit organizations nationwide.

Collision repair professionals from facilities in Las Vegas volunteered their time and expertise to restore the damaged vehicles donated by Allstate Insurance, GEICO, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Hertz. The local repairers included Caliber Collision, Service King and Gerber Collision. A fourth vehicle was repaired by South County Collision in California.

The recipients selected by Family promise are as follows:

• La Cara and Marice Washington and their three young children. They graduated from the Family Promise shelter program in August, are both employed and in their own housing.

• Cassandra Waller, a single mother with two children. Physical disabilities limit her mobility so a Recycled Rides vehicle will help improve her quality of life.

• Magan and Wayne Sykes, with two young children, are successfully enrolled in Family Promise’s Community Partnership for Opening Doors Housing Program.

• Janiecia Fernandez, a single mother of two young children, is a participant of the Promises to Keep Housing Program and devotes her time to working with her children's education.  

“Each of these recipient families have successfully transitioned from homelessness into independent housing through our Family Promise programs,” Terry Lindemann, executive director of Family Promise of Las Vegas, said in a release. “Reliable transportation is the critical link that enables these families to continue on the road to recovery and we are grateful for the support and impact that the National Auto Body Council has made in our local community.”