by Joy Wilson –
For the second consecutive year the Cascade Division will give one of its adopted families a vehicle for Christmas. As families undergo the adoption process for Christmas gifts, we look for the “right” family, one that needs a vehicle. One of our local businesses, Leif’s Auto Collision Centers, is donating the vehicle after it has been completely refurbished. This year the vehicle is a 1999 Dodge Caravan, and the special thing about this vehicle is that it will be fitted with a wheelchair ramp for one of its new occupants. This vehicle is going to a single mom with two children; her son is seven and her daughter is five years old. The daughter has cerebral palsy and is in a wheelchair. The mother has only a tiny car and has to fold up the manual wheelchair and put it in the trunk, where it doesn’t quite fit.
The mother recently got a job and is trying to make a better life for herself and her children. This year, Cascade divisional headquarters has adopted the family—the entire building is bringing in groceries, toys, clothes and shoes. The week of December 18 the adopted family will be taken to Leif’s Auto Collision Center to be surprised with their newly fitted and refurbished minivan filled with Christmas toys, gifts, and goodies. This occasion will be broadcast by KPTV television in their four-hour morning show, “Good Day Oregon,” a segment on their news, and on two broadcasts of their “Local Heroes” show which will air on Christmas Eve and on Christmas evening.
We are all abuzz here at DHQ waiting to see the faces of the family as they are presented with a Christmas they will remember for the rest of their lives.