These high schoolers help fix cars and donate them to single moms
Transportation is one of the biggest barriers single mothers face, and a Virginia nonprofit found a unique way to address it.
Reliable transportation is essential to many people, but not everyone can afford it. This can be particularly challenging for single mothers, who face difficulties going from one place to another when they don’t have a working car. At one high school, students are stepping up to help. They are learning practical skills by fixing donated cars, which are then given to single mothers who need a reliable way to manage their daily responsibilities.
What happened
In 2018, Eddie Brown and his wife, Jenny, founded the nonprofit organization Giving Words. The nonprofit collects used cars, repairs them, and gives them away for free to single mothers who need reliable transportation. Eddie believes that while single mothers have many challenges, transportation is often the major challenge they face every day, which is why he came up with this idea. Without a car, it can be hard to get to work, pick up kids from school, or even get to necessary medical appointments. Eddie wanted to provide this relief to single mothers so they could handle their tasks with ease and save time.
Since its inception, the program has grown across Virginia, successfully donating and repairing over 60 cars to date. One of the partners in this initiative is Louisa County High School, where students like Owen and Steven are helping repair the cars and learn valuable skills in the process. One student emphasized the importance of ensuring the cars they fix are safe, because someone’s life depends on their hard work. They also added, “What we did has a bigger impact on someone’s lives than we thought it did.”
Their teacher, Shane Robertson, went through the same program at Louisa County High years ago and returned to teach it. He emphasized that a car is more than just a bunch of parts. “It literally is, like, making the difference between someone making it, and someone not”, he added. Students were thrilled to meet Jessica Williams, the next recipient of a car they had worked on. Jessica is a single mother of three and works as a cashier at a grocery store. She expressed her heartfelt gratitude to the community and everyone involved in this wonderful initiative.
Why this matters
For a long time, many people have treated skilled trades like mechanics, electricians, plumbers, and welders as a last resort when they didn’t have anything else to do. However, in today’s world, with advances in technology and the rise of artificial intelligence, they have become among the most in-demand jobs, offering good pay and a level of job security that many office jobs can’t promise.
Currently, many industries are facing challenges from automation and artificial intelligence, especially in positions that can be performed on a computer. Work that depends on hands-on skills, fixing, building, and repairing, doesn’t face the same risks. A trained mechanic, for example, is unlikely to be replaced by machines because their work requires hands-on skills, critical thinking, and physical presence. That’s why training in these areas has become more important than ever, and young people should learn these skills if they want to thrive in the long run in the era of AI.
At the end of the day, the skills learned in these trades have lasting value. Learning how to fix problems, work with tools, and take responsibility fosters confidence and independence beyond what is taught in traditional classrooms. These skills will remain relevant no matter how technology evolves in the years to come. At the same time, when young people develop these skills, they’re better prepared for careers that offer stability, growth, and real-world impact. This benefits both workers and the communities they live in.
