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A gifting ceremony was held for a local mother in need thanks to the Greater Southern Tier BOCES, GEICO and the National Auto Body Council (NABC) Recycled Rides program. That mom is Brenda Martinez from Steuben County, NY. She was presented with a refurbished 2018 Toyota RAV 4. Pro Action of Steuben and Yates, who offer a variety of services to families in need, selected her as the recipient.

When Martinez got the call informing her she was the recipient, she said she couldn’t believe it, her prayers were answered. “I’m like super excited, I started crying,” Martinez said. She was super shocked when she got the phone call she would be receiving a car. “I didn’t say much and when I got off the phone I was just staring out the window, like I didn’t know what just happened,” Martinez said.

Martinez is a mom with two kids, a 7-year-old daughter and a 5-month-old son, both with special needs. Her son recently had surgery. She also works and attends school full-time. This car is a life changer and lifesaver, as she pays $800 in cabs a month to get around. “I live up in the countryside so I have to call for cabs to go where I needed to go, and I was paying an arm and a leg for cabs. And on top of that, with my son and my daughter having to go see a specialist because automotive program at the Greater Southern Tier BOCES stepped up to the plate and repaired the car.

“Put it all together, our students did all the work between our classes’ auto body and the auto tech program here on the Coopers campus, and we

“The cool part is our students in the program were able to make the repairs and do all the cleaning and preparations leading up to this day. It’s a big collaboration with our vendors and our students and our staff and our school board and our administrators,” — Phil Robinson

of their special needs, I would have to call an ambulance, and sometimes an ambulance took 45 minutes just to get to me,” Martinez said.

Martinez received the car through the Recycled Rides program, part of the NABC, an organization that works with the collision industry. They partner with collision facilities and insurance companies like GEICO, which donated the car. The car parts were donated by many local businesses. Students in the were able to provide this family today with a life-changing mode of transportation now,” said Brian McDonnell, auto body instructor at GST BOCES.

One of the students who helped repair the Toyota RAV 4 graduated from the GST BOCES automotive program in the spring. He is working full time now and came back to unveil the car to present to Martinez. “I helped with doing the brakes and I also put the tires on the car and Ialsohelpedremovethetrunklidsso that we could get a new one on there, and other than that it was all interior pieces and getting it all wrapped up so that we could give it to the new owner,” Brayden Cosiel said.

Cosiel said he learned how to repair cars from his teacher at GST BOCES Coopers campus, Phil Robinson.

“The cool part is our students in the program were able to make the repairs and do all the cleaning and preparations leading up to this day. It’s a big collaboration with our vendors and our students and our staff and our school board and our administrators,” Robinson said.

Several local businesses contributed to the project, including Williams Toyota, LKQ, Liquidz Auto Body Supply, Dunning’s (NAPA) Auto Parts, Firestone, Choice Auto Glass, Margeson Insurance Agency and BFTP Limited. McDonnell and Robinson said this event was very special. They teach students how to work on cars, and to be able to see them provide this act of service and give back to the community is an amazing feeling.

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