It was all smiles from residents at an Edmonton seniors’ care centre on Friday — all because of a little elbow grease and the kindness of a local shop.
Earlier in January, the catalytic converter was stolen from the Dr. Gerald Zetter Care Centre‘s bus. After the community heard about what had happened, the folks from Jasper Auto Parts offered to repair the bus free of charge — a job worth roughly $3,000.
“Anytime you can help people that have a need… as a group, that’s what we should do,” said Morriss Corbiere with Jasper Auto Parts. “It makes you feel good.”
Many residents at the care centre were awaiting its arrival. When the bus was returned, they were thrilled.
“I’m really happy. It’s just wonderful. I can’t believe it came back so quickly,” Hazel Dolphin said. “It means everything because we can go on our outings now.”
“Our residents are so excited to have the bus back,” site manager Crystal De Jong explained. “They look forward to going on those visits. It gives them such quality of life, so it’s important to us.”
READ MORE: More than 320 catalytic converters stolen in Edmonton since October
While the bus is finally back in its stall, the generosity isn’t stopping there.
“We’ve had a number of people come forward with offers to assist us with some fencing to hopefully deter this from happening again, so we’re just working out the details of that but is sounds really promising,” De Jong added.
This isn’t the first time the care centre has been the target of crime.
This was the third time since 2018 the van’s catalytic converter was stolen, but with the backing of the community, the centre is hopeful it won’t happen again.