By Patricia A. Scheyer
NKyTribune reporter
The Sustaining Member Samaritan Car Care donation campaign, runs through August 22, but the organization needs help all year round.
Samaritan Car Care is a lifesaving business — akin to a miracle agency. Located at 1428 Madison Avenue in Covington, there is no name on the building, but with three bays and an additional bay without a lift, there is no doubt that good work is being done there.
Imagine someone who is down on her luck, has a couple of children, but is having trouble making ends meet on a regular basis.
People can help, if she asks, and possibly she gets into a training program to prepare her for a job that will help her keep a roof over her family’s head, and pay to keep the lights on and the heat on.
She gets the job, but now what does she do with the children? And how does she travel to and from the new job? It’s not on the bus line.
There are hundreds of people trying to get out of the poverty cycle, and with help, it can happen.
“I have been going to Madison Avenue Christian church for 36 years,” said Bruce Kintner, Director of Samaritan Car Care. “Reverend Chinnamuthu Simon challenged me to help find an answer to reliable transportation for these women who need it.”
He and a few other volunteers began doing oil changes and very minor repairs on the cars of low income single moms. They began by arranging repairs through a network of local Northern Kentucky repair shops.
That was 16 years ago. With donations and hard work, the Samaritan Car Care Clinic has grown.
In 2023, the organization opened their new building at 1428 Madison, and 12 plus agencies refer women to them on a regular basis for repairs like oil changes, new tires, air filters, and brakes on the older model cars they have.
This year alone they were able to help 129 families so far, but they have had to turn away 130 other families because they don’t have the funding.
Many times the women have a car, but don’t know how to change oil, nor do they have a good place to do the oil change. Then there is the problem of tires. If the tires become bald, they have no traction, and the car becomes a hazard on the streets, to the family and to others. Add to that, if the brakes become worn to the point where they have trouble stopping, the brakes have to be addressed also.
“It doesn’t help to put four new tires on the vehicle if you can’t stop because of the brakes,” said Kintner. “Safety and reliability are our major concerns. The average cost of repairs on the cars is about $1000. The work is not done for free — we ask the families to pay some of the cost.”
The Director of Service and Education Jim Dennis had been in charge of a garage in the Erlanger-Elsmere area before he signed on to be the head of everything at Samaritan Car Care.
“I try to tell the moms that if they find a car that they want to buy, bring it to me first,” said Dennis. “If they bring it to me first, before they buy it, I will have all good news. If they buy it first, and then bring it to me, the news will probably be bad because now it is their problem.”
He tells them if the seller won’t let them bring the car to an independent mechanic they should walk away from it. He discourages them from driving on a spare, other than driving it to the garage, and he encourages regular maintenance, like oil changes. Dennis currently has two students from Gateway who he supervises in the car repair, Jose Frias and Lee Gibson.
Kintner says they have come a long way, but the need for this car care is tremendous, and to have to turn away as many as they help is discouraging. Nationally, the problem of child care for these families has been addressed much more than transportation needs, and both are problems to help break the cycle and help these moms get a hand up, not a hand out to be financially independent.
The web site for the Samaritan Car Care is samaritancarcare.org, and there is a place on the website where people can select a button to donate. If someone has a car that has some life left in it, they can also donate that car. The phone number to call is 859-525-6240. If companies or individuals would like to make a donation, they can mail them to 1428 Madison Avenue in Covington, or they can make the donation through the website. Gifts can start as low as $10. Or people can link their Kroger rewards card to the agency.
Valvoline donates oil for the oil changes, and several companies do in kind donations. The company needs financial contributions and supplies.
“This is the chance to make a difference in someone’s life, and to help your neighbor,” said Kintner. “The lifts in the clinic shop lift cars. Your gift lifts lives.”