By Hannah Bodnar — Correspondent
On a stormy August afternoon, a dozen people gathered at the Gulf station on Main Street to celebrate: Concordian Annie Sicard, a working single mom of four, was about to see her new (to her) Toyota Sienna for the first time.
Sicard received her keys, and her children pulled off the tarp and piled inside.
“I’m eager to put the past behind us and look forward to a beautiful future,” she said.
She’s doing all that with a boost from Concord-based Second Chance Cars, which accepts donations of used vehicles, has them restored, and passes them on at a deep discount to those who need a lift.
A new life for used cars
Second Chance’s founder, Concordian Dan Holin, served in the Israeli military before turning to a different line of work: non-profits.
Over the next few decades, he worked at The Jericho Road Project, which matches volunteers with non-profit organizations in underserved communities, and UTEC, where he designed programs — such as a Whole Foods internship — to encourage young people to choose economic success over violence.
Holin reached his late 50s and knew his next job was his last. He founded Second Chance Cars on three pillars: He liked cars, he liked people, and he “wanted to make it his best job.”
Second Chance collaborates with vocational schools to refurbish the donated cars and with social services agencies to identify people who need vehicles to get to work — mainly veterans, people leaving incarceration, and single parents.
Sicard qualified for that last group.
A homecoming, with a hiccup
Born and raised in Boston before moving to Florida and later Georgia, she was a stay-at-home mom to her four children before moving back to Massachusetts in November 2021 and being hired as an inspector at Leominster-based United Solutions, a maker of indoor and outdoor household goods.
Though happy to “get life started again,” with no car, she’s had to Uber to her job in Leominster.
Sicard reached out to Second Chance, but Holin was away, and she connected with social services agency Saint Vincent De Paul instead. They identified her as a candidate and reconnected her with Second Chance. Ultimately, she got accepted and matched with car donors Remy and Michele Evard of Concord.
Sicard purchased the Evards’ refurbished Toyota, valued at $7,500, at a fraction of that price — $900. In return, the Evards, like all donors, received a tax receipt for the retail value of their car. Sicard’s payment was distributed across multiple zero-interest installments to improve her credit score.
Supporting the mission
For those looking to support Second Chance Cars, Holin has some simple advice: “What I don’t need is people who want cars. I have plenty. What I do need is cars.”
When “people understand how we work and what impact it has and what financial benefit it has on people’s lives … you’d have to be an idiot not to see what kind of an impact having a car would have on that family,” he says.
“If you really want to see your car change somebody’s life, then we’re the only show in town.”
For more information, visit secondchancecars.org.
