High School Students Fix Up Cars For Single Moms

Photo Credit: Andrew Woolfolk for Louisa County Public Schools

Automotive technology students at Louisa County High School in Mineral, Virginia repair donated used cars and give them away to single moms in need of reliable transportation.

How It Works

What starts as hands-on classroom learning becomes something far more personal. Inside the automotive lab, students are repairing more than engines — they’re restoring stability and hope.

Learning Skills That Change Lives

It begins at Louisa County High School in Mineral, Virginia, about an hour northwest of Richmond. Around 20 automotive technology students at the school are working on cars every semester.

This is more than just some school assignment; the work done by these students changes lives. The students take donated used cars and work tirelessly to repair them.

For eight years, 4–5 times every school year, single moms are presented with fully-functional cars in a heartwarming ceremony by the high school students that repair them.

Their teacher, Shane Robertson, teaches his students how to perform brake and tire repairs, change fluids, test batteries, and maintain heating and cooling systems.

Robertson said, “They get the real-life grit behind why they are really doing a task. This is somebody’s real car and you’re really making a change in the world.”

Failure, Growth, and Purpose

One student, an 11th grader named Tyler Shelton said, “We’re learning about all the electricity of the car and how the wiring works. This class teaches you a lot…If you can’t figure it out, you just gotta keep trying. It teaches you that failing is OK.”

Another student, 16-year-old Holden Pekary added, “The whole class is very rewarding.” He recalled seeing a baby in her mother’s arms when one of the cars was given away, and suddenly he saw the impact his work was making.

Louisa County Public Schools Superintendent Doug Straley wholeheartedly supports the program, believing that the program teaches valuable life skills.

Straley said, “When you walk into this automotive lab, it’s a showcase of lifelong learning. Students, hands-on learning skills that’s going to go for a lifetime. And not only to help themselves, but help others as well.”

Giving Words

The program’s reach extends beyond the school through a partnership rooted in shared experience and empathy. Giving Words bridges the gap between repaired vehicles and the families who need them most.

A Mission Born From Lived Experience

This project began as a partnership with the nonprofit organization Giving Words, a charity that works to support single parents by providing them with complimentary vehicles and any car repairs they may need.

Their website says, “Driving families from crisis to peace,” a slogan of sorts.

The founder of the nonprofit, Eddie Brown and his wife were both single parents who had their own struggles with access to transportation previous to the founding of the organization.

Brown is proud to say that at this point in time, the nonprofit has given away more than 60 cars and repaired more than 260.

Becoming the Help You Once Needed

He recalled his own struggles, “I remember as a single parent sitting in the floor, coloring with my children and not being present because I was worried about how I was going to feed them.”

All he wants is to help those who are in the same predicament he had once lived through. The students working on the cars and the recipients are all benefitting from the program.

It is easy to look back on your past, wishing things could have been different or better. Instead, Brown is actively making things better for other people.

He has become the helping hand that he never had.

He spoke about this briefly, “Typically, what it was is there wasn’t a light at the end of the tunnel. There wasn’t somebody saying, ‘Yes,’ and somebody helping.

We want to be able to stabilize a mom. Students working on that car, and he’s putting forth all that effort, but he doesn’t know the emotion that’s going to come when he sees that mom come in in tears.”

Success Story

The impact of the program is best understood through the lives it changes. One restored car became the turning point for a mother rebuilding her future.

A Reliable Car, A Fresh Start

One example of the program’s significance involves a 2007 gold Toyota Prius repaired by the students at Louisa County High School.

It was given to a single mother of three named Jessica Rader who fought against addiction and won.

Prior to the car giveaway, she had to rely on rides from friends and family for any appointments and other activities that were required of her as a mother.

She had no consistent transportation to hold a full-time job, so she scraped by on part-time gigs.

Community Beyond the Car

Now, thanks to the hard work and generosity of the students, Giving Words, and all others involved, she has a stable full-time job to support her children.

It is no longer a challenge just to get her kids to doctor’s appointments and wherever else they need to go.

When the door to the garage opened at the high school, it was very emotional for all those involved.

Rader was grateful to have a helping hand from a group of strangers, saying, “It’s not just about the car, it’s about community.

Kids who never met me cared about me enough to put hard work into a vehicle to make sure myself and my kids were safe. I got to meet all of them. It was breathtaking.”