Sixteen-year-old Sam Kuzmishin — like his father, John — is not afraid to take something apart and try to fix it.
His dad describes himself as a tinkerer, from a long line of tinkerers, who grew up in car-crazy Akron, Ohio. So even though his job is as an independent financial consultant for health care companies, father and son enjoy working together on the family’s and friends’ cars in the two-car garage and driveway of their home in Squirrel Hill.
During a pandemic peak last year, the Winchester Thurston School sophomore was thinking of ways he could help people who were hurting, so they went to their toolboxes and came up with the idea of donating their mechanical labor to fix vehicles for local charities that could use the cars to help their clients. This spring, they fired up the soon-to-be official nonprofit called Drive On.
As Sam explained for his school, “Without reliable transportation, many people struggle with holding a steady job or simply being able to perform daily tasks. I founded Drive On in order to address this need.” The charity got its 501(c)(3) designation earlier this month.
This is how it works: The guys called around to nonprofits, looking for donated vehicles that need to be fixed. They connected with City Mission in Washington, Pa., which had several. The father and son drove down with a trailer. They couldn’t even get the engine of the 1995 Honda Pilot, which had a quarter-million miles on it, to turn over. So they decided to try to save a 2006 Buick Rainier with a mere 165,000 miles. They got it onto their rented trailer and took it home.
Mr. Kuzmishin had, in the meantime, scored a sweet garage in Lawrenceville where they eventually will be able spread out and work on cars without looking like hillbillies to their Beechwood Boulevard neighbors and displace the rides of Mr. Kuzmishin’s wife and Sam’s sister. But until the city inspections clear, they work at home.
Together, they put about 30 hours into the Buick. Most people would say the car wasn’t worth saving at $75 or more per hour in labor costs. That’s the part that the Kuzmishins donate.
They also donated $1,912.31 worth of parts, which, going forward, they plan to cover with donations. They itemize everything they added — new door control panel, new suspension air bags and compressor, windshield, wipers — on the website DriveOn412.com.
They didn’t worry about the car’s cosmetics, but they did have it inspected, to be sure it’s safe, before trailering it back to City Mission. That charity sold it, just for its Blue Book value, to a yearlong resident of its shelter, Paul Shinko, whose life has been greatly improved by having a reliable vehicle.
The Kuzmishins now are working on that Honda Pilot.
They’re also talking with other nonprofits whose people they hope to help. One local charity, which already helps clients with car repairs, may send them to the Kuzmishins’ new garage. It’s in the same Lawrenceville building as Persad Center, which offers LGBTQ-affirming mental health services, and Milestone Centers, which supports people with developmental and behavioral health challenges. So, Mr. Kuzmishin says, “There’s going to be a lot of goodness in that building alone.”
How good a mechanic is Sam, who just has his driving learner’s permit?
“I’m by no means an expert,” he says. But he’s learned how to do his research, narrow down possibilities to identify the problem or problems, and how to “not be scared to take it apart. You just have to get in there and get working.”
He’s enjoying learning some of the intricacies of starting a nonprofit and business plans and thinks it might be applicable to the world of engineering that he’s thinking about going into.
In the meantime, he’s helping people and spending time with his dad. They both agree, “It’s fun.”
Learn more at www.driveon412.com.
Bob Batz Jr.: bbatz@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1930 and on Twitter @bobbatzjr.
First Published: May 2, 2021, 10:00 a.m.
