Aubrey Automotive Repair Center in Aubrey, TX, helped get a disabled veteran’s car back on the road. Their parts supplier provided the parts at cost, plus 10 percent, while the shop donated the time needed to make the repairs.
Below is the article as it appeared on the Denton Record-Chronicle website.
Shop makes disabled vet’s auto roadworthy
07:19 AM CDT on Tuesday, May 25, 2010
By Les Cockrell / Region Editor
A disabled veteran is back on the road to the Dallas VA Medical Center for regular treatments, thanks to the owners of an Aubrey automotive repair business.
“He had a car that didn’t run,” said John Whitley, commander of Disabled American Veterans Denton Memorial Chapter 106.
Whitley said he was contacted by VA officials in Dallas about the situation and found that the young veteran and his wife were having financial problems.
The local DAV Chapter managed to ease some of the couple’s immediate financial worries, Whitley said, but available funds ran low before their car could be repaired. Whitley had checked with a couple of repair shops and found that cost estimates far exceeded his budget.
The DAV chapter relies on fundraisers and donations for support, Whitley said.
“We fight for benefits for the vets, but we get no government funding,” he said.
It was then that Whitley decided to take the car to Bill Cogswell and Gary Bigley, owners of Aubrey Automotive Repair Center.
“I had to load it [the car] on a trailer by using a winch,” Whitley said. “They looked at it and said it would cost $1,000 to repair it.
“I told them I had already spent quite a bit on that vet and couldn’t pay that much of a bill.”
Whitley said the shop owners told him to leave the vehicle and call back the next day. When he did, they told him that they had worked out a deal with their parts supplier.
“When we called them and explained the situation, they were able to give us the parts at their cost, plus 10 percent,” Cogswell said. “We donated our labor.”
Thanks to the shop owners and mechanic Monty Huckabee, who performed the repairs, the veteran’s car was put back in working order, Whitley said.
“I had a little to pay, and they absorbed the rest,” he said. “The actual bill was closer to $1,500. They did it just because it was for a veteran.”
“We were just happy to be able to help and get this vet the treatment he needed,” Cogswell said.
Whitley and Denise Brown, commander of the newly chartered Unit 106 of the Disabled American Veterans Auxiliary, went to Aubrey to say thank you.
“I presented each of them with a certificate of appreciation, and I presented the two owners with a plaque to hang on the wall of their business,” Whitley said. “I was extremely honored to have those guys step up for a disabled vet and do what they did. I’m a disabled vet myself.”
Cogswell said that he, Bigley and Huckabee were glad to help.
“We just wanted to show our appreciation for the veterans and what they did for us,” he said. “When they come back, people tend to forget about them.
“We just want them to know that we don’t forget about them.”
To read this article on the Denton Record-Chronicle website, visit http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/localnews/stories/DRC_Veteran-Help_0525.37e62c65.html.