Hard times are the focus of many news stories these days. They aren’t exactly the hardest to find, not with so many people struggling with mortgages and the like with the current economic woes. Take this news story for example, a mother in Kansas City who has hit hard times. For the time being, Nicole Scott and her seven children have been staying at the reStart homeless shelter while she attempts to get out of her troubles. If that wasn’t enough, her car was stolen just a few months ago while it was parked at the shelter. For someone searching for a job, it’s a total loss.

What’s really shocking about this story is the twist that turns it from a tragedy to a success. True that Nicole Scott is having a struggle of putting her life back together with her children, but she was given quite the shocking surprise when she was invited to go with others from reStart to accept a reconditioned van that was being donated. At the presentation, Scott was asked to come up and what happened next was something she had no idea was coming. There was a second van being given away. A 2000 Chrysler Town and Country was going to be her’s.

“And then when y’all called me over there and said it was mine, it was like, ‘oh, for real?’ I just want to thank everybody. I’ll really enjoy it and my kids are going to love it,” she said about the gift. “I can do what I need to do now. Go find me a job and stay on top of my business.”

The group that donated the vans were students from the Northwest Iowa Community College. They were in Kansas City for the annual SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills convention. The students call their group the Charitable Chariots and it takes a good two months to get the vans in proper working order.

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