It is Starlight Projects intention to launch a project that involves offering “accessible, quality, and affordable” car repair services on the Hopi Native American Reservation. Due to being in such a remote area of Northern Arizona’s High Desert, located on the three mesas, the Hopi have endured through countless hardships, both foreign and domestic, and have yet still endured. We are still here.
Currently, as you drive through the reservation, you will see a “littering” of old, used, antique, and broken down cars everywhere. In some cases a car gets placed out of commission to become a lawn ornament, or a visual nuisance to the landscape, simply because the radiator needs to be replaced, and financial and logistical roadblocks prevent people from getting the help and the solutions that they need. Sometimes even forcing some into debt, by being preyed upon by new car dealers hinging on the fact that owning reliable transportation in the remote desert where we live is a must, almost taking advantage of our disadvantage to help ourselves.
Currently the only viable options for major car repair are in Tuba City, Winslow, or Flagstaff. All of which are more than 45miles distance in any direction, and when your car doesn’t run, and you can barely afford the parts, How will you get your car to the mechanic? There were in the past local mechanics that did the work, such as the retired shop we are looking to renovate, but at the current time, there is only 2 private mechanics that do good work, and one has now stopped because of physical and health reasons. There are several tire shops, however they cannot help you if you need more than an oil change, air, or your fluids checked, besides changing your tire.
There is a few towing companies and one has a garage, not too far from the AZ-264 and Hwy-87 intersection going west, however he prefers to do just roadside and tow work. So where are people to go? We propose to not only help the community with the auto repair services to those who need it, but also to try and begin an “apprenticeship” program where willing participants can learn from working on actual cars and learn the value not only of a skill, but of helping and doing something good to give back.
Because we are not just a Non-Profit, but a federally registered and authorized charity, all of the proceeds of any of our projects, after expenses, go straight back into the main operation funding for a multitude of other projects that we run. In this way, we are able to self-generate funding to operate, as well as not remain too dependent on sponsors in order to remain operational as a Charitable Foundation in order to maintain and support our programs.
In most cases, “Monetary Donations” are obtained through our various fundraising efforts, via our programs like this one proposed, the sale at farmers markets of the produce grown by the children in our farming projects, Volunteer Food Sales, etc. while “In-Kind” donations, that is to say donations of goods or services, are always erratic and depend on a “case-by-case” basis, such as materials for building, or back to school supplies for the kids, gardening or arts and crafts materials for workshops, or in the case of our upcoming Hopi Language Ap, developer company willing to donate their man hours to developing the ap for Hopi, for example. All this to say, that we are very limited on cash, and work very hard to try and minimize every expense we can, to squeeze another penny into our programs.
Currently, as you drive through the reservation, you will see a “littering” of old, used, antique, and broken down cars everywhere. In some cases a car gets placed out of commission to become a lawn ornament, or a visual nuisance to the landscape, simply because the radiator needs to be replaced, and financial and logistical roadblocks prevent people from getting the help and the solutions that they need. Sometimes even forcing some into debt, by being preyed upon by new car dealers hinging on the fact that owning reliable transportation in the remote desert where we live is a must, almost taking advantage of our disadvantage to help ourselves.
Currently the only viable options for major car repair are in Tuba City, Winslow, or Flagstaff. All of which are more than 45miles distance in any direction, and when your car doesn’t run, and you can barely afford the parts, How will you get your car to the mechanic? There were in the past local mechanics that did the work, such as the retired shop we are looking to renovate, but at the current time, there is only 2 private mechanics that do good work, and one has now stopped because of physical and health reasons. There are several tire shops, however they cannot help you if you need more than an oil change, air, or your fluids checked, besides changing your tire.
There is a few towing companies and one has a garage, not too far from the AZ-264 and Hwy-87 intersection going west, however he prefers to do just roadside and tow work. So where are people to go? We propose to not only help the community with the auto repair services to those who need it, but also to try and begin an “apprenticeship” program where willing participants can learn from working on actual cars and learn the value not only of a skill, but of helping and doing something good to give back.
Because we are not just a Non-Profit, but a federally registered and authorized charity, all of the proceeds of any of our projects, after expenses, go straight back into the main operation funding for a multitude of other projects that we run. In this way, we are able to self-generate funding to operate, as well as not remain too dependent on sponsors in order to remain operational as a Charitable Foundation in order to maintain and support our programs.
In most cases, “Monetary Donations” are obtained through our various fundraising efforts, via our programs like this one proposed, the sale at farmers markets of the produce grown by the children in our farming projects, Volunteer Food Sales, etc. while “In-Kind” donations, that is to say donations of goods or services, are always erratic and depend on a “case-by-case” basis, such as materials for building, or back to school supplies for the kids, gardening or arts and crafts materials for workshops, or in the case of our upcoming Hopi Language Ap, developer company willing to donate their man hours to developing the ap for Hopi, for example. All this to say, that we are very limited on cash, and work very hard to try and minimize every expense we can, to squeeze another penny into our programs.