North Idaho College programs take burden off mom in need of vehicle repair

A spray and wipe here, a twist of a lug nut there.

Second-year North Idaho College automotive technology student Sam MacKinnon inspected a front brake rotor of a 2003 Mercury Mountaineer before putting on the final touches Thursday afternoon.

Did she earn valuable experience from working on the vehicle? Yes. Did she feel good knowing her work would make life a little better for a fellow NIC student? Absolutely.

“I think it’s a wonderful thing,” MacKinnon said. “I’m 34 years old and I work with a bunch of 20-year-olds. It doesn’t matter what age you are; everybody needs help at some point, especially students. I think it’s a great thing to be able to help them because you have to have reliable transportation for school, for work, whatever else you have going on. I love it. I think it’s great. It feels good to give back to other students.”

The Mountaineer belongs to Post Falls mom Meghan Selle, 29, who recently went back to school.

After driving it for about a year, the vehicle's issues made themselves known.

"I was driving one day and my brakes sounded horrible," she said. "I was like, 'That’s really sudden.'"

Selle is a full-time NIC student and a mom of grade school-aged children, so time and money are often sparse. She contacted Louisa Rogers at NIC's Center for New Directions, a program that helps single parents and displaced homemakers with community resources and career path exploration.

"I reached out to Louisa and said, 'Are there any resources to get my brakes peeked at?'" Selle said. "With the kids, I don’t want an unsafe vehicle."

Selle said she had heard that auto technology students at NIC's Parker Technical Education Center sometimes work on community members' vehicles for a lower rate than a mechanic shop around town.

And it just so happened the Center for New Directions had just secured a $2,000 grant from the NIC Foundation for exactly this sort of thing.

"That doesn’t seem like a lot," Rogers said, "but at Parker, because they don’t charge for labor and they’re only paying for the parts, that can stretch pretty far."

Since the grant was announced in December, around 10 people have been helped with much-needed car work.

"Car issues are one of the main barriers in moving forward," Rogers said. "Someone could be going on a really good path, going to school, working, they’re balancing all these things, and their brakes start going out, then there's something wrong with the car that could derail their entire pathway forward."

The Mountaineer had its own unique set of problems.

“This is a better reflection of real-world experiences, so it’s a win on our end too,” said Mark Magill, NIC professor of automotive technology. “It needed rear brakes, it was metal to metal back there, but it was a rust bucket. And once they opened it, they found out the rear struts, the springs were broken, so there were some other safety items that were involved with this that went above and beyond.”

Parts alone would have cost about $800, Magill said, estimating the job overall could have been as much as $1,500 elsewhere.

“When people are making decisions, and it's brakes or tires or gas, the students can relate to that because a lot of them are not too far from that environment themselves," Magill said. “One of our core mission statements is about this community support and being involved in the community. Any time we can get opportunities to bring that into our environment, we jump on it."

Selle got her car back Thursday afternoon.

"It was the biggest blessing ever," she said. "At this time, I wouldn't be able to fork up over $1,000 to have my vehicle fixed.

"I had no idea it was so bad," she said. "When I picked it up, it literally feels like I’m driving a brand-new vehicle."

The funding for the work was made possible by the NIC Foundation's grant program, going strong for 31 years.

"They started that program thanks to the proceeds from NIC's Really Big Raffle," NIC Foundation Executive Director Rayelle Anderson said.

She said during budget season, the foundation's board members always prioritize funding for the grant program, which zeroes in on emergent and high-priority needs.

The $2,000 grant was part of a $5,000 award that is also being used to help people with financial need receive dental cleanings from the NIC Dental Hygiene clinic and child care for Center for New Direction events.

"It’s a great partnership of various programs of NIC working together to meet student needs," Anderson said. "The results are impactful. Students are getting their needs met pretty quickly."

The auto technology program is accepting repair requests from the public. It does not repair vehicles older than 2008 or rebuild engines and transmissions nor does it take collision repair requests.

Rogers said the Center for New Directions will continue its partnership with the auto tech program regardless of funding sources, whether money comes from the NIC Foundation or other benefactors.

"Even if we don’t have the funding to pay for the entire car repair, we’ll go halfsies," Rogers said. "It's still so affordable compared to other options."

Info: nic.edu

    Sam MacKinnon, a second-year automotive technology student at North Idaho College, works on the rotors of Post Falls mom Meghan Selle's 2003 Mercury Mountaineer during class Thursday.
  

    Mom Meghan Selle is seen with her daughter Indigo Rhodes, left, son Ezra Hintz and stepson Braxton Hintz on the North Idaho College campus Monday.
  

    Mark Magill, professor of automotive technology, discusses the work conducted on Post Falls mom Meghan Selle's 2003 Mercury Mountaineer, seen Thursday in the background at North Idaho College's Parker Technical Education Center.