Posted by Lillye Anderson

I loved our old family 1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee from the time I sat in a booster seat in it until I sat in the driver's seat. I rode for thousands of miles in the back seat of this car - to the Cape in the summer, to my grandparents' home on holidays, and on daily trips to school, activities, and friends' homes. When I got my driver's license last year, the car was mine. My friends loved my "vintage" car. Of course, by now it was showing its age - the sunroof was rusted shut, the gas gauge didn't always work, and frequently a light would blink and beep "coolant sensor bad," which we translated to car-speak for "have a nice day." I planned to drive off to college next year behind the wheel of this Jeep, but a few weeks ago it stopped going in reverse. The repair costs were just too much to spend on such an old car. My dad made the final decision to get rid of it when he got a hernia pushing the car out of a parking space.

Dangling from my rear view mirror was the air freshener from the JF&CS Car Mitzvah program. Our family agreed that donating our car to JF&CS would be a fitting way to say good-bye to our beloved Jeep. My mom, who works at JF&CS, called the phone number from the website. After that, Charitable Auto Resources would pick up the car, sell it at auction, and give JF&CS the proceeds as a cash donation (after deducting expenses). We were all a bit sad to say goodbye, but we were so glad to know that our donation would help JF&CS.

The Levine family lives in Wellesley. Lillye is 17 and a senior at Wellesley High School. Her dad is recovering from hernia surgery and her mom is hoping for a mild winter since she will be doing most of the snow shoveling this year.