Yesterday we celebrated an early Thanksgiving for two single moms of young sons here in BCS. Their stories are simultaneously heart-breaking and inspiring.
Megan, our 167th client, has endured countless challenges in life, including an abusive and traumatic childhood. Her advocate says of her, “She has been knocked down time and time again. Through it all, she still has a heart to serve others and her country and was briefly in the army before being medically discharged. She is currently dealing with one hurdle after another, and having a reliable means of transportation will be life changing for her and her son.” Despite working a full-time job, Megan couldn’t earn enough to cover expenses AND purchase a reliable car. So Megan’s church nominated her to OnRamp and we gifted her a Toyota Camry. She is such a grateful and sweet young woman - she handed us a thank-you card and a lovely plant for our office the moment we met at the tax office! She even volunteered to help OnRamp in any way she can.
Megan, second from right, with her advocate, her OnRamp interviewer, and our Operations Director.
We are keeping Client 168’s identity private, but can share that this young single mom was a victim of domestic violence at the hands of her child’s father. She moved to BCS to find safety and to enroll in college and pursue a degree in nursing. She works and is saving all the money she can. She’s involved in her church and committed to growing as a mother, which is how she connected with her advocate who trained her in parenting skills. In her application, she told us that, “Having safe and reliable transportation would be life changing. Moving that mountain in order to focus on education and work without the stress of survival and hardly making ends meet would shift priorities to prosper my family's life. Currently I am… using Uber, [but] it costs a lot. My neighborhood has an unsafe path across the highway to get to the nearest bus route, that takes me to another bus route to get to school. The route does not work with my son’s daycare hours. So there is not a good public transit or bike ride option.” When we asked her what she was looking most forward to with her new car, she said taking her son to the park to ride his bike and to the library to read books. Until now, these were, in her words, “luxuries” she couldn’t afford due to the high cost of Uber. But now, with the Kia we gifted her, she can load up her son’s bike and go enjoy a sunny day. Can you imagine having a child who desperately wants to go to the park and public library but you can’t ever take him because transportation is an unaffordable “luxury”! I can’t imagine that. I am so, so grateful that with the help of our generous donors, we were able to gift this worthy woman and her son the vehicle they need to go to the park and library today and everyday!
The Kia that will give this client and her son access to work, school, church, the park, and the library!
We hope these women have inspired you to give thanks this week for the many blessings God has provided each of us. And we hope they inspire you to continue to partner with our ministry so we can serve the next amazing clients on our list with the essential gift of reliable transportation.