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Local non-profit has van parts stolen, raises money for repairs in hours

The organization provides services to disabled students.

CLEVELAND — Catalytic Converter. According to AutoZone, it’s a key part of the exhaust system on most modern vehicles. Ultimately, it’s pretty difficult, nearly impossible, to drive a car without one.

Youth Challenge, a private northeast Ohio non-profit, recently had several of them stolen from their vans. The organization provides activities and transportation for disabled students.

Without their vans, approximately 200 families were impacted. CEO Chris Garr says it broke his heart to tell them that everything was on hold.

"We do about 350 programs a year, so for them to hear ‘Youth Challenge programs are cancelled indefinitely,’ I think probably for a lot of the parents and the kids it was a real bummer," said Garr.

Fortunately, a crowdfunding campaign was able to raise the money to replace the parts in a matter of hours. The vans are scheduled to be repaired and Youth Challenge hopes to be back up and running this Friday.

 

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