David Hamlin has a soft spot for kids. He and his wife, Jeanne, regularly contribute to charities that help children, so when the couples realized their black 2017 Honda Civic was not the right car for them, they decided to donate it to Kars4Kids.
“This car was in great shape, like a rolling tuxedo,” says Hamlin. “My first inclination was to sell it, but we called you guys because you take care of kids. We didn’t want to give you a pile of junk – we wanted to donate something of real value.”
For Dave, making a donation like this, which included a Suzuki motorcycle, is just doing the right thing and part of making the world a better, kinder place.
He received a lesson about right and wrong 20 years ago when he moved to Texas from California and was struggling to find a way to support himself. A friend remarked that she was paying a pet sitter $25 a day to stay with her dog, and that sounded like easy money to Dave.
He pulled out the phone book and dialed a company called Critter Sitters.
“How much do you charge?” he asked the nice lady who answered the phone. She told him and then asked him some questions about his dog. “What’s your dog’s name?” she asked.
“Bob.” Dave gave her the first name that popped into his head since he did not own a dog.
He obtained the information he needed and hung up. But he felt guilty about lying to the helpful lady, so he called her back and confessed. “I don’t have a dog.”
“I know,” she laughed. “No one names their dog ‘Bob.’ You are trying to start up your own pet sitting business, aren’t you?”
He admitted he was and was surprised when she offered to meet him for coffee and explain the business to him.
“We met, and we’ve been together ever since,” Dave recalls.
With their pet sitting days behind them, Dave runs a courier service, and Jeanne is a successful real estate agent. They enjoy living on their Texas ranch, riding motorcycle and horses in their free time. Dave noted he might be donating another motorcycle to Kars4Kids in the near future.
Dave is grateful for the random events that brought them together. “We both came from nothing,” Dave says. “We work hard and try to do the right thing. We believe that if you are nice to people, they will be nice to you. That’s the way we live.”
And now, donating to Kars4Kids is part of their lives.
