Doing our part to give back

April 14, 2014
Keenan Auto Body is involved in NABC’s Recycled Rides program as part of an ongoing opportunity to say thanks to members of the military.

Gratitude for those who serve (or have served) this country was the catalyst for us to get involved in the National Auto Body Council (NABC) “Recycled Rides” program back in 2009. We knew early on that we wanted the first recipients of the vehicles we refurbished to be veterans and military families. After years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, we saw many veterans coming home, some from multiple tours of duty. Some had injuries but lacked reliable transportation to get to their doctor’s appointments. Others fell on hard times, and desperately needed a vehicle to get to work or get their children to school.

We knew our company had an opportunity to give back to some of those who have given so much for all of us.

Craig Camacho, our company’s marketing director who now serves on the NABC board of directors, got in touch with the United Service Organizations, Inc. (USO) of Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey. That organization created a committee to choose the recipients of the vehicles we refurbished.

“They’ve come through for us four times over the years, choosing very good recipients,” Craig says.

The first year, for example, we donated a refurbished Ford Focus to an Army veteran who had served three tours in Afghanistan and Iraq; he’d come home with shrapnel in his shoulder, and was having a hard time getting to and from his medical appointments.

In 2012, we provided a Honda Civic to a young woman who’d been in the U.S. Army National Guard for four years; she’d sold her own car in order to pay for care and medications for her mother.

Our company is regularly involved in charitable efforts, but Craig and I both noticed a difference in the level of enthusiasm among our employees when they learned the recipients of the “Recycled Ride” were associated with the military. Many of them donate their time on the projects, and nobody ever questions whether the results of their efforts were going toward a worthy recipient.

“It was a no-brainer for them to support the military,” Craig says.

We’ve also helped the NABC raise funds for Operation Comfort. Based in Texas, Operation Comfort’s AutoMotivation is a unique program that provides wounded soldiers with a positive, motivating opportunity to work on automotive projects and receive training that can help them gain jobs in the collision repair industry. Craig has visited the Operation Comfort facility and met on several occasions with veterans in the program.

“These are soldiers who in some cases have lost an arm or leg, but they’re out there motivated to learn,” Craig says. “It would be easy for them to sit home or fall into a depression, but their attitudes are fantastic. They feel like they have a purpose again.”

Thanks to more than $100,000 in donations from our industry, tOperation Comfort’s AutoMotivation program has relaunched this year in a new facility. Now all the funds raised through NABC for this program will help ensure the program’s continued success.

We created a fund-raising campaign for Operation Comfort that involves not just our employees, but our customers as well. Anyone making a donation of $1 or more can put their name on a specially designed card. Those cards, which feature a U.S. flag with a silhouette of a soldier, are then hung on the office walls in each of our locations. Our company has pledged to match every donation, dollar for dollar. As of earlier this year, our total contribution to Operation Comfort had already exceeded $2,000.

In addition to these efforts, I want to send a shout out this month to the nine military veterans who work with me at Keenan Auto Body. Achilles Berrios, Jim Conover, Dan Fitzpatrick, Jim Jackson, Jerry Jones, Tim Moore, Matt Padden and Phil Shire all have served our country in the military, and I’m proud to have them as part of our team.

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