We're constantly looking at being involved in our community, and we try to do it in ways other Churches are not -- we don't want to duplicate something somebody else is doing well.
ONE of the things we're planning is to have a car clinic in our parking lot in October. Our west parking lot is nice and big, and the west entry has a large covered drive-thru that's conducive to, well, driving through or "shade tree mechanicking".
ANYWAY, our TARGET is single moms who need car care advice, but are concerned they are taken advantage of by local mechanics. OK, that's sexist, I know, but it's also a realistic concern.
We'll be doing MINOR repairs - tightening or replacing fan belts, adding water to batteries, checking coolant levels, filling washer fluid, checking tire wear.... mostly visual inspection and, as I said, MINOR repairs. We are forming strategic alliances with local repair shops that we believe to be of good reputation, and one of them has OK'd us to print "free oil change" coupons that can be used at their place of business. (up to 5 quarts of oil and one filter)
That shop, and a few others, are also offering 10-20% discounts to people we recommend.
Our ladies will be on hand to serve refreshments (yeah, more sexism
) and, if desired, give a tour of our facilities.
We're trying to think of other things that would make this a success, so I'm opening this up for comments or suggestions. (Obviously, there are liability issues, but we're checking with our insurance company, and they tend to believe we're protected, in effect, by the mechanical equivalent of the medical "Good Samaritan law".) We're not charging for services, and we're not pretending to be experts -- in fact, we'll make that disclaimer clear!
We won't LIMIT it to single moms, of course, even though that's our intended target -- we really just want to minister to the community.
ONE of the things we're planning is to have a car clinic in our parking lot in October. Our west parking lot is nice and big, and the west entry has a large covered drive-thru that's conducive to, well, driving through or "shade tree mechanicking".

ANYWAY, our TARGET is single moms who need car care advice, but are concerned they are taken advantage of by local mechanics. OK, that's sexist, I know, but it's also a realistic concern.
We'll be doing MINOR repairs - tightening or replacing fan belts, adding water to batteries, checking coolant levels, filling washer fluid, checking tire wear.... mostly visual inspection and, as I said, MINOR repairs. We are forming strategic alliances with local repair shops that we believe to be of good reputation, and one of them has OK'd us to print "free oil change" coupons that can be used at their place of business. (up to 5 quarts of oil and one filter)
That shop, and a few others, are also offering 10-20% discounts to people we recommend.
Our ladies will be on hand to serve refreshments (yeah, more sexism

We're trying to think of other things that would make this a success, so I'm opening this up for comments or suggestions. (Obviously, there are liability issues, but we're checking with our insurance company, and they tend to believe we're protected, in effect, by the mechanical equivalent of the medical "Good Samaritan law".) We're not charging for services, and we're not pretending to be experts -- in fact, we'll make that disclaimer clear!
We won't LIMIT it to single moms, of course, even though that's our intended target -- we really just want to minister to the community.
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