The Lift Garage is a nonprofit auto repair shop that provides low cost car repair for low income people in the Twin Cities area.
With the support of our incredible community of donors and volunteers, The Lift Garage has grown to complete over 1,250 repairs! We have added 3 full time employed mechanics, a full time Executive and Operations Director, are open Tues-Saturday every week. Since opening in April of 2013, we have saved low income Minnesotans over $465,000 in car repair costs! We continue to seek grants and additional funding so that we may continue to meet the high demand of car repair and reduce our waiting list. If you would like to make a donation, head over to the donation page on our website: www.theliftgarage.org/donate. We are grateful for all of your support!
You've ever had an unexpected car problem, Oftentimes the cost is just too much. One woman has made it her mission now to make affordable car repair a reality for Minnesotans. It's the latest Kelly's Community Champion from Minneapolis. It looks, sounds and functions Working on a radiator on that car. But the lift garage in Minneapolis is not We're doing t Kathy Hying didn't have a love of cars growing up. T Oh, it's a Mercedes-Benz part. And a, and a Dodge. In fact, if you're confident it's going to work. She really didn't want to open up a car repair shop. For me personally, it was my faith that led me to it. There was no good reason for me to do t Literally I wrote a pro and com list about why I personally should do t Not exaggerating when I say there was not There was all sorts of reasons why I shouldn't. And I still couldn't stop t And then that's, that's when I knew it was somet At the time she was working as a pastor and just kept noticing a problem. Living in poverty is That crucial block was car repair. Affordable car repair. I just kept that nagging voice in her head just never went away. So she finally listened. And she enrolled in automotive school. There was no condenser. Years later, she opened up t And I went in there, I brought my car in and I said, And she said right away, no problem. A place that's become a lifeline for customers Ten years ago he was homeless and undergoing cancer treatment. I'm really at rock bottom and there'someone who said, I don't know you, but I actually believe in you. Each year, the lift garage sees about 1400 customers. Each one of them must meet the 150% federal poverty guideline, meaning roughly they make about $22,000 a year or less. The n Kathy only charges $15 an hour and parts are at cost. The bill is usually about 15 to 20% less than you'd see in a typical shop. And it's Her million dollar idea that she didn't want ten years ago has turned out to be priceless. We are going to try to lift lives. We are trying to lift the community as a whole. And when she talks about that need being so great, so they are already booked into February. So that's how great of a need there is. And she said they are constantly trying to figure out ways to get more people in, into the shop so they can get their car back out running. And she also talked about not only is t She said for some of these people t And so when that's the situation, they actually pay to put them up in a motel because they know for them giving up their car is their home. So just incredible. She's an incredible person but obviously the need is just my point.
