One lucky graduate will win a truck

PALMER — If you’re a local businessperson you know the drill — every year, multiple sports teams and scout troops and academic extracurricular activities will stop by asking for donations.

Yvonne Marty’s done it for four kids in multiple activities. In addition, she’s organized four end-of-the-year grad blasts.

“This year was hard. Really hard,” Marty said.

She started early, raising funds in November. She said that to pay for the venue — Raven Hall on the Alaska State Fairgrounds — along with food for 400 kids from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m., as well as music, activities and a gift for each graduating senior, she has to raise a minimum of $8,000.

But, she said, it’s great to be able to give seniors an alternative to partying with drugs and alcohol.

“It’s the alternative party to going out to Jim Creek,” she said.

That’s a tall order. And the big box stores don’t make it easy. Marty said that most big national corporate retailers don’t give anything to small efforts like hers, preferring instead to donate to big charities.

Oddly enough, Wal-Mart is the exception. The mega retailer gives a $50 gift card each and every time.

In reality, Marty said, that money to put on the event all comes from small donations from local business — chiropractors, dentists, massage therapists, car dealerships, mechanics and the like.

“Every single year I’m just amazed at how they all pull together,” she said.

She said her biggest donation each year comes from the Mat-Su Health Foundation, which chips in $1,500, since the grad blast is the healthy alternative celebration. That, she said, covers the venue rental.

But the kicker this year, at least as far as Marty is concerned, is the grand prize giveaway. Through a very generous group of local automotive dealers and service professionals, she’s found a way to give away a pickup.

It’s not a whole lot to look at. Just a 1993 Toyota. But it runs well and actually looks pretty decent. Marty gives a lot of the credit for that to Magnum Motors.

Dan Duke, store manager at Magnum Motors, said that he tries to support schools when he can.

“We offer opportunities for the kids to come to the lot and earn some money for their programs,” Duke said.

He said he tries to find a way to donate a car to a school event once a year.

“This year, I didn’t get a vehicle in time, but she came to me with a vehicle,” Duke said.

Marty said the pickup belonged to her brother-in-law and then her son. It had been sitting on her brother-in-law’s property out in the elements for years.

When she told Magnum about the pickup, Duke told her to bring it by, leave it with them, and he’d run a safety check on it, maybe spruce it up.

But, Marty said, what they did she couldn’t really have imagined. They called in favors from car repair shops — Diversified Tire and NAPA were businesses that Duke mentioned — and put new tires and rims on it, lined bed, bumpers and bottom of the doors and fenders with spray-on liner and detailed the interior.

“I just wanted to give away an old beater,” Marty said.

She said she was “blown away” by what Magnum was able to do. Duke said that helping schools is part of what a local business does.

“I used to be a manager at a GM dealership, and most of our marketing funds went to supporting the local schools,” he said.

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