Contest Winners On Donating A Car To Charity

"Congratulations, Mr. Carlson, you’ve just won a brand new Lexus RX400h! How does it feel knowing that you’ll soon be driving one of the hottest gas-electric cars available today?"

I was pretty sure the radio DJ knew the answer to that. It felt great.

After calling everyone in our family and all our friends, my wife Jane, and I went out to celebrate at our favorite restaurant with our two boys.

Neither Jane or I were surprised when Ted, the oldest, came up with an idea about donating our car to charity, after all, we were proud to have raised them to be "grateful givers". Ted said that he’d heard of a car donation service company that would accept a car donation on our behalf. And then Greg, our youngest suggested we choose a veterans charity in honor of my dad, who had served in the Second World War.

Our conversation soon got back to all the bells and whistles our new Lexus was equipped with until Greg pulled out a coin from his pocket and asked his mom to pick heads or tails. When she asked why, he said, "To see who gets to drive it first, you or dad!"

We spent the rest of the evening celebrating our good fortune and had a great time.

The next day, after Jane and I picked up our new car at the radio station and parked it in the garage next to our old car, we decided to find out more about donating a car to charity. Would it really be as easy as Ted made it out to be?

When I called the toll free number (800-405-5236) for Easy Donate a Car, I was pleasantly surprised to be talking to a live operator and not a recorded ‘press-this-number’ automated response. Naturally, I had some questions about donating a car to charity. The operator explained that they were a charity car donation services center and that they would take care of all the car donation details. Once the car was sold at auction, the net proceeds from our car donation would be made on our behalf.

The car donation service representative went on to explain that the National Veterans Services Fund was a registered charity that provided case managed services to veteran’s families. She went on to tell me that NVSF’s main focus was on families with disabled children. What’s more, Easy Donate a Car accepted all types of vehicle, running or not. A person could donate a boat, truck, plane, motorcycle or an RV, if they wanted.

The more that nice operator told me, the better I felt about donating our older vehicle to the National Veterans Services Fund. Like my wife said, if ever there was a win-win situation in life, this was it.

M. Carlson