Group provides Valley woman with new, used car

PALMER - Katrina Suarez said that when she found out she was getting a car she was ecstatic.

"I jumped with joy and thanked Jesus so much, and I fell and was just an emotional mess," Suarez said.

The car comes to her through a 2-year-old program known as Wheels of Hope. The Mat-Su Napa Auto Care Center Owners Group gets together and purchases a car, which it repairs and donates to a needy family through a partnership with Alaska Family Services.

Suarez has recently moved into a new apartment, but before that was homeless with her three children, living in churches as a part of the Family Promise Mat-Su's program. She spent 44 days in that program and credits the people there with getting her back on her feet.

"When it comes down to it I have to thank Family Promise so much, so, so much, for all of the good things that I have learned for them and them giving me hope not to give up and to have faith," Suarez said.

Family Promise Mat-Su Director Laurie Kari said this was the first time she had nominated someone for the program.

"The main thing that made us want to nominate her was her energy and how much she was striving to get out of the situation she was in," Kari said. "She was like a workaholic trying to get all of her resources together."

She said that Suarez had only been in the state six months, but that she grew up here and returned this summer. By Nov. 6, she had been admitted to Family Promise. Forty-four days later, on Dec. 20, she was out.

Kari said Suarez got a housing voucher and was approved for low-income housing. She found a good landlord to rent to her.

"The place was really dirty so he decided to take the security deposit off if she cleaned it. So she just spent three days cleaning," Kari said. "It's just amazing."

Without a car, Kari said, Suarez had to rely on the MASCOT bus system and rides in the Family Promise van. She could also use some of the program's gas vouchers to give to neighbors and friends to get herself and her family around.

Kari said she knows the car will be a huge help to Suarez and her family. She said watching the ceremony when it was handed over was exciting.

"It was very exciting. She bawled her eyes out and she was trying desperately to say thank you to everybody," Kari said. "Afterwards we watched her drive away and waved and we haven't seen her since, so I hope she comes back to visit."

Becky Stoppa with Alaska Family Services said the car is a 1999 Pontiac Grand Am, a "pretty spiffy" car, red with four doors.

"If you don't have a car and you're down on your luck it's really hard to pick yourself back up," Stoppa said. "I guess if people live right in downtown Palmer and they don't have a car, I guess they're going to be alright, but the rest of the Valley is just so spread out."

She had high praise for the Napa owners.

"For the Napa Auto Care owners to step up and do something like that is just huge," Stoppa said. "We're a nonprofit, we can't just go around buying cars for people."

She said that this year the program received 60 nominees, many with stories very similar to Suarez's. She said they're tragic stories.

"You just get the sense that that could be their home for Christmas, the car," Stoppa said.

But she said she thinks Suarez isn't in that category. And, with a little luck, she won't be again.

"The likelihood of her being successful and being able to do everything she needs to do for her and her kids is just going to be so much greater with a reliable car," Stoppa said. "We keep saying we wish we could be like Oprah and give a car to everybody."

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.