Oakwood Tire Company celebrated the holiday season by donating a car to a resident in need Saturday morning.
The giveaway was part of the company’s eighteenth annual “Cars for Christmas” charity. Oakwood Tire Owner Mike Robertson presented Quinshe Washington with a refurbished 2011 Chevrolet Malibu at the company’s store on Atlanta Highway.
“It came in with a blown engine and we were able to buy it and put an engine in it,” Robertson said. “It’s all fresh and ready to go.”
Washington said receiving the car was huge for her, as she’s been reliant on public transportation and friends to get around recently.
“It means the world to me. It’s a blessing,” Washington said. “It will help me a lot, getting back to work, getting my kids from practice and games and stuff like that.”
Washington is the mother of a Johnson High School girls’ basketball player. Lady Knights’ Head Coach Jared Hodge said he knows Robertson and pointed to Washington as a community member who was in need of the vehicle.
“It came up that they were looking to give away a car and we’re really big on family at Johnson. We try to think that basketball is a second family for a lot of these girls,” Hodge said. “Mike and (Oakwood Tire) do a lot of things in the community, so we were happy to be able to connect and make it happen.”
Robertson said the “Cars for Christmas” giveaway is a event he’s happy to continue.
“I bought Oakwood Tire 18 years ago and there was a company in town that did this and we put tires on a couple of cars that they were giving away,” Robertson said. “They went out of business and went back to Florida, so we just kind of picked up the baton and kept doing it. It keeps going every year.”
Oakwood Tire held the giveaway live on WDUN Saturday morning. Click play on the audio above to hear the giveaway.
