Virginia Beach, Va. - After a car dealership took action for a Virginia Beach teen who has been dedicating her time to helping the homeless, NewsChannel 3 recognized them for taking action to help.
Mariah Smith and her mom needed repairs for the van they use to hand out blankets and clothes to the homeless.
Money was tight and a Virginia Beach car dealership stepped up in more ways than one.
Mariah says she was in shock when she first visited United Auto Wholesalers, the dealership that volunteered to examine and repair for the van she and her mother use for their special charity, Blankets for the Homeless.
But there was more from the owner, Sal Faraci.
“Another thing, after I do fix this, if they ever have any problems all they got to do is pick up the phone and call me and no charge? I'll make sure the vehicle is on the road all the time. If we can't get it on the road all the time, like I said, we will replace it,” says Faraci.
So later in the week, Mariah and her mom returned to drop off their van.
Faraci wasn’t finished yet.
While their van is being worked on, they'll be able to use one from the lot at no charge.
“We think the homeless people should be taken care of, and we saw what you were doing and it just touched us. So , thank you. God bless you. We figured we could help you, so this something we can do as you're helping everybody else,” says Faraci.
Sal's partner, David Fischer said when he saw our story about Mariah's mission of night after night handing out blankets, clothes and food for the homeless and the problems they were having with their van breaking down, he had to take action.
Also, when they heard about Mariah's recent major repair bill for her car, they offered to fix that as well at no charge!
So for all that David and Sal are doing, we presented United Auto Wholesalers with a People Taking Action award.
One other thing, we also presented a $100 Visa gift card from our community partner Southern Bank. But the owners of United Auto Wholesalers told us to turn that over to Mariah so she could use it to buy food for the homeless.
Mariah was nearly speechless. "I just honestly can't can't even tell you how much it means to me and our ministry and not only that. It means everything to the people we're helping."
If you want to take action for Mariah's charity, here's the address:
Blankets For The Homeless
4980 Century Drive
Virginia Beach, Va. 23462
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