NABC® Members GEICO and Diehl Collision Center Donate Beautifully Refurbished Vehicles to Two Ohio Residents in Need through the NABC Recycled Rides® Program

The NABC Recycled Rides® Presentation Took Place Recently in East Massillon, Ohio.

PORT CHARLOTTE, FL  (March 13, 2025) – Recently two women who take care of their families and their communities received profoundly important gifts, fully refurbished vehicles to make life much easier for them and their families—thanks to the National Auto Body Council Recycled Rides® program along with insurance partner GEICO and collision repair partner Diehl Collision Center.  The presentations took place at the Diehl location in East Massillon, whose technicians dedicated their time and talents to prepare the vehicles for their new owners.

Mariah Cross had been going without a vehicle for quite a while.  She works two jobs and has had to ask family and friends to take her to and from work. Cross has four children and, until now, no way to get them to after-school activities. She was in dire need of reliable transportation for all her family’s needs, whether it was for trips to the grocery, medical appointments, school or her jobs.  Cross was nominated for the NABC Recycled Rides® donated vehicle, a 2017 Kia Forte, by Big Brothers Big Sisters of Summit, Medina and Stark Counties.

NABC® and its generous members, GEICO and Diehl, also presented a fully refurbished 2020 Mitsubishi Outlander to Baiyina Burney, who travels for her job as the food outreach coordinator for the Mid-Ohio Food Collective.  In that role, she visits locations in a wide area. The job requires her to drive her personal vehicle, but the car she had been driving was subject to frequent breakdowns.  The donated vehicle will also ensure that her children have transportation to and from school regularly. Burney was nominated for the donated vehicle by Special Olympics Ohio.

GEICO is the largest donor of vehicles to the NABC Recycled Rides® program, having donated more than 1000 vehicles since 2007.

The Diehl family of dealerships and collision repair facilities is just that, a family operation with more than 25 years of service to eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Diehl team member Richard Haag, Jr. was overwhelmed that his work meant so much to the recipients. “I am so happy,” Haag said. “I almost cried when one of the recipients gave a speech.  She didn’t say much, but you could tell she really needed this.  Just to be able to give that to her meant a lot.”

Jason Glovas, Diehl Collision manager, expressed his feelings: “When this all started, GEICO dropped of two cars that need substantial work, and it was a lot to get done.  Now that we have finished with the two vehicles, it was very nice to see the appreciation on the recipients’ faces; it was very rewarding.”

NABC Recycled Rides® is a unique program in which businesses representing all facets of the collision repair industry team up to repair and donate vehicles to individuals and families in need of reliable transportation. Since the inception of the NABC Recycled Rides® program in 2007, members of the National Auto Body Council® have donated more than 3,500 vehicles valued at some $51 million.

Additional partners in the NABC Recycled Rides® presentation included Diehl Kia, Diehl Hyundai, Flynn Tire, Hovis Auto, Truck Supply Company, Advanced Remarketing Services, Cars for Charity, Enterprise and Copart.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL AUTO BODY COUNCIL®

The National Auto Body Council® is the premier organization of collision industry partners dedicated to strategic networking opportunities that positively change lives in the communities we serve. The collaborative membership of the National Auto Body Council® has gifted more than 3,500 vehicles and provided extrication opportunities for some 6,000 First Responders in communities around the country through NABC Recycled Rides®, NABC First Responder Emergency Extrication (F.R.E.E.™) and the NABC® Community Impact program. That effort equates to a 4:1 ROI in dollar value delivered from NABC® membership dollars.

The NABC Changing and Saving Lives Foundation, a 501c3 organization, is committed to the goal of driving change for veterans, military members, first responders and families in need, while harnessing the power of the collective membership of the collision repair industry to positively impact communities where we live and work. As demand for NABC® programs like NABC Recycled Rides® and NABC F.R.E.E.™ grows, so do the needs for resources to manage these important programs. Being able to pursue grants, gifts and donations allows NABC to expand these programs to serve those in need and help communities where we live and work. For more information, visit www.NationalautoBodyCouncil.org.