BOZEMAN — On Tuesday night at The Hub in Bozeman, the non-profit Greater Impact was destroying a Subaru for a greater cause.
“We’re going to be smashing this car, really to raise money for a local non-profit called Greater Impact, so every smash we’re going to go and charge people $5," said John Paszkiet, a member of Greater Impact. "They get thirty seconds to inflict as much damage as possible.”
Greater Impact helps out the community in a few different ways.
“Our auto team helps repair people's cars when they can’t get to work," Paszkiet said. "Our housing team makes repairs on people’s homes to give them a safe place to live. Our coaching teams, we do financial coaching and recovery coaching.”
Today, the auto aspect of the organization came in handy.
“Over the course of a year and a half, we tore apart this car and used those parts to fix several other cars in the community," said Paszkiet. "Now it’s time to smash and we can raise a little bit more money for the local non-profit and then we’ll actually sell it to the junkyard -- make a little bit more money there too.”
The money they raised on Tuesday is going towards a program they started called the Lindsey House, a sober-living house for women.
“It’s going to be a safe place for women who are sober who need kind of a transitional place to live,” Paszkiet said.
The house is something Linda Walker has wanted to set up for 8 years, and she’s had about a month to completely renovate the house the women will be living in. It will open on July 1, and today’s event will go a long way.
“Some women can’t afford first month's rent, that are coming out of treatment or other facilities," said Walker. "So just helping with that, being able to help them with their needs, supplies for the house, cleaning and just upkeep and maintenance.”
By the time Tuesday evening's two-hour event was over, the Subaru didn’t stand a chance.
