Coastline Elderly

"Wheels for Meals"

Donate your auto, truck or boat and everyone is a winner.

--Abrah J. Salk

Coastline Elderly Services, Inc. is one of the 27 Meals on Wheels programs in the State. This program serves nutritious meals to those homebound individuals 60 years of age or older. The meals are more than just a hot lunch. Individuals who deliver meals ensure daily contact and a "well being" check for these elders who are homebound. It truly is a great program. However, the cost of food, food preparation, equipment, and necessary salaries adds up. There is no charge for the meals, other than a voluntary donation of $2.00. In order to cover the costs of these meals, Phil Beard , Director of the Elderly Nutrition Program at Coastline Elderly Services, Inc., searched for ways to bring in more money to the program without passing the cost along to the seniors. He had heard of up Helping Hands of America ( www.helpinghandsofamerica.org ) – an organization that took in donated cars, trucks, and boats for charity. He thought this kind of fundraiser would be a good fit for the Meals on Wheels Program. Twenty-three other Elderly Nutrition Programs in Massachusetts chose to be part of this fundraiser as well. Phil even came up with the perfect name. Each car, truck, or boat that is donated, (“wheels”) allowed the “Meals” on Wheels programs to offer more free high quality meals to our elders in need. So as play-on words, Phil named the fundraiser “Wheels for Meals”. For every auto, truck or boat that is donated, Coastline receives roughly 8% of the proceeds and all the other participating Meals on Wheels in the State will receive 4%. As of September, this fundraiser has raised over $100,000.00, providing the Meals on Wheels programs with over $4,000.00 each.

Phil Beard believes that “this is a win-win situation – everybody wins. The consumers win, all the Meals on Wheels programs in the state wins, and the donator of the vehicle wins, too”.

When you donate your automobile, boat, etc. less tax dollars are paid because you are making a charitable donation. The money goes directly to the agency that serves the people, rather than going to the government and then eventually trickling down to the agency.

And the process couldn't be easier for the donor. Just ask Terry Moniz who recently donated her old car.

Terry had a 10 year old car that needed over $1500 worth of repairs. When she went to the car dealer to purchase her new car, they would only give her $100 in trade for it. So having heard of the “Wheels for Meals” fundraiser for the Meals on Wheels program at Coastline, Terry called up Helping Hands and spoke with Michael Dunne. He was very nice and helpful. She called up on a Tuesday and the Helping Hands picked up the car at her house (no one needed to be home) on that Thursday and left all the paper work she would need in her mailbox. Less than a week later, they called to let her know that they sold the car for $1100. Terry can claim that amount on her taxes. Michael asked her what charity she wanted to donate to and she said “Coastline Elderly Services, Meals on Wheels Program”. The only stipulation was that the car must run.

Terry sums up her experience, “I'm satisfied. If the opportunity comes up again, I'd do it.”