“I’ve had multiple surgeries before, two spinal cord, one to remove my gall bladder,” Ana Garcia said. “I’ve had a bunch of CAT scans and X rays and all that.”
Last year, Ana and her family had to travel to Portland eight times. They have to travel back and forth for Ana’s doctor appointments and treatments. With so much travelling, the bill starts to add up.
“I’m a single mom, I work full time, I don’t have the money to go back and forth,” Melony Garcia, Ana’s mom, said.
That’s why her family held a car wash fundraiser on Saturday. They needed to fund raise for the remainder of their trip next week, a trip that will decide if Ana needs to go on the kidney transplant list or not.
“We didn’t have enough money to get to Portland so I thought of some ideas and I thought the car was would work out best,” Ana said.
Melony Garcia had posted on Facebook and had a sign out on the street sharing their car wash fundraiser but she didn’t expect very many people to come.
But when nearly ten cars showed up in just an hour, she felt the love and support from her community.
“It’s amazing, it really is,” Garcia said with tears in her eyes. “I didn’t think we were going to get very many people.”
One of those customers, Rick Nelson, found helping someone in need very simple, almost as simple as buying a meal out.
“It’s less than I spend for two burger and fries,” he said. “A half a tank of gas, four gallons of gas for that matter, ten, 20 bucks, yea, why not?”
Despite what Ana has gone through and what she will go through in the future, she continues to have a smile on her face and a positive attitude.
“She hasn’t has it easy, but she’s always happy, she always goes ‘I can”, and she’s always got a smile on her face,” Melony Garcia said.
If you’d like to donate or help them fund raise, their family will be doing another car wash on Sunday from 11-3 at West Main Pharmacy.
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