and a true one at that...

Some may recall a post of mine from about a year ago where I relayed a story about how I'm also part of a Yahoo group of folks that splintered off from a former BMW digest. A story about how we pitched in and bought a car for a down-on-his luck 9/11 fireman from NYC.

Well, we did it again. One of the members is a Microsoft dude out in Washington. His wife is a teacher. We found out about one of her students whose Father was killed in an auto accident a month ago. Found out that there is another boy at home, another son in the service, and a mom really struggling to make ends meet. Owns a piece of land and a trailer and not much else. Kids wearing hand-me-down clothes and taking some abuse for it at school. Good kids too, apparently. Just a family down on its luck in a big way.

Started when we heard the family transportation wasn't transporting anyone any more. Way over 100,000 miles and needing major repairs. Once we found out it would cost over $4000 just to get the junk running again, we decided what they really needed was a new car.

There's 200 members of this little group. 145 of us (most a lot more than I) pitched in with money and in one week raised enough to buy her a brand new Chevy Cavalier, insurance for a year, and extra gifts of books, games and clothes for the kids. The dealer out in Washington kicked in with every rebate on the car they could find.

It's a done deal. The lady and her kids were tricked into going to the dealer yesterday afternoon for what they thought were parts for a friend's truck and instead found a brand new car filled with stuff for the family. Seems to me that's what Christmas should be all about. Iffin' you don't mind me saying so - I'm pretty proud of our little group. Bunch of folks all over the country, and some from Europe and Australia, who mostly have never met each other but have pitched in time after time.

Merry Christmas to everyone on the VS. Off to spend the rest of the day with my daughter and her family.