The owner of Plant City’s AAMCO stepped in and did a more than two thousand dollar repair for free when a friend alerted him to the story of a local family in need.
When people ask what makes Plant City special, one of the most common answers is the goodwill of its residents.
Whether it’s a boutique that opened under the premise of promoting random acts of kindness or a new organization in town that was created solely for the purpose of helping those in need you can always find someone looking around and extending a helping hand.
Rob Sanchez, owner and operator of Plant City’s AAMCO, quietly used his skill set to change a stranger’s life last week after hearing the plight of a local family from his good friend Doug Killian.
“When Doug came to me with the story about this family I just decided to help,” Sanchez said. “I want to try and give back when I can, try to help somebody as much as I can.”
Killian is a retired fire captain with Hillsborough County and during his decades on the job he became friends with a volunteer firefighter who worked for the county for 25 years. Since his friend is now officially retired finances are strapped and his wife was helping support the family by continuing to work and keep a steady income flowing in.
Recently she went to the hospital thinking she had a severe cold. Upon being admitted the doctor quickly realized something more was at play and ordered she have an MRI.
Her flu-like symptoms may have brought her to the emergency room, but she left with a completely unexpected diagnosis. She has brain cancer and the doctors estimated she was more than likely looking at a fatal diagnosis.
The family involved in the situation has asked to remain anonymous as they continue treatment.
Following the diagnosis they quickly began the tedious journey to undergo routine treatments when their van suddenly broke down.
The husband owns a pickup truck but it’s too high for her to get in and out of.
They were stuck and frantically trying to figure out a solution to their problem with Killian decided to take matters into his own hands and see what he could do.
He has known Sanchez for years and said it’s hard to find a man with a stronger character.
Sanchez is honest and kind and unbeknownst to the majority of the public he has quietly been helping those in need for years. Throughout the 10 years that he’s owned the local AAMCO on James L. Redman Parkway he has kept his eyes peeled and acted as an anonymous savior whenever he stumbles upon a need.
When Killian strolled into his shop and shared the story of the broken van Sanchez didn’t hesitate to simply say, “Bring it in.”
“Yeah I’ve done this a few times actually and when I heard the story of what was going on with them I felt really terrible,” Sanchez said. “I don’t really need to reach out and tell anybody. I thought, well this isn’t really something I would do, to say, ‘Hey this is what I’ve done, come look at me.’ It’s not advertising, it’s just the right thing to do. I try to help everybody as much as I can, but this was at the top of the list for sure.”
His team immediately looked the vehicle over and found the transmission was broken and would need a complete rebuild and overhaul.
The transmission would no longer change into higher gears so the family was unable to safely drive it down their drive way, let alone all the way to the hospital. All in all it ended up being an approximately $2,500 repair.
Sanchez covered the cost entirely and called Killian to pick it up a mere three days after it had come through his garage doors.
“I guess they were going to surprise them and bring it back all fixed,” Sanchez said. “Doug’s a great guy and a great person. What I’m sure he didn’t even mention was the family had this electric wheelchair and it had fallen off the back of the truck. Doug was actually fixing that himself as part of this too. He’s been around Plant City forever and whenever he sees something, he fixes it.”
Killian said he hopes people in town really take the time to look around them and step in to intervene if they see something they can help with. No act of kindness is too small and can create a lasting impact in the life of a stranger.
“This is what’s so great about Plant City,” Killian said. “People like Sanchez. You’ve got somebody who doesn’t even know these people and he’s willing to put out thousands of dollars to help out someone in need. There’s people like that all over town and you never hear about it. This family, they’re great people. They’ve been in Plant City for two or three generations. We take care of others if we can here. That’s just the way it is, the way it should be.”
