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It takes a village (or a “community of goodness” as we like to say) to award a great car to a great person. This community came together at Veterans Inc.’s annual Stand Down event to award a gorgeous and refurbished 2006 Subaru Legacy to Ken, a Vietnam veteran (far left, below). Featured from left to right are Tim Corey (Veterans Inc.), Dan Holin (SCC), Michelle Roche and John Primpas (Minuteman Vocational School), Sue Katz (American Consumer Credit Counseling), and John Rizzi (SCC). Missing: Dave and Sue, the Subaru’s donors!

Over the past six months, we approached 18 banks, hoping to find one that would be able to offer our car awardees a 0% interest loan. Even though we could secure each loan, we got rejected repeatedly. We literally were about to give up when the City of Boston Credit Union came through, offering a 0% interest loan, free bank membership and an offer to help out with financial literacy training. CBCU also hosted our first “SCC learning community” partner training meeting. Thank you Dan Picard, Consumer Lending Manager, for making this partnership happen!

Our board and staff continue to meet every three weeks to prepare for our program “roll out” in early 2019. Last meeting we were lucky to host and have a terrific conversation with Luis Rodriguez, a returning citizen, a business owner and a college readiness adviser employed by College Bound Dorchester.

A main goal for the coming weeks is to partner with a bank or credit union that will be able to not only administer our $900 micro-loans to car recipients, but also to report the loan payment to credit rating agencies.

After 6 months of hard work, the SCC Advisory Board celebrated the completion of its duties with a meal at RedBones in Davis Square, Somerville. From left to right, back row: Wade Rubinstein, intern Sam Copeland, Don Ryder, Tom Brigiotta, Jamel Bonilla, Jeff Smith, Jonathan Wachs and Kevin Sibley; Dan Holin and John Rizzi in front. Don, Tom, Jamel, Dan and John went on to join SCC’s founding Board of Directors, while Jeff and Kevin remain on in an advisory capacity.