Vintage High Students Donate Car to Napa War Veteran

After auto shop students in Tom Dougherty’s Vintage High auto shop class spent weeks refurbishing the electrical system of a donated car, they needed to give it away to a worthy recipient.

Through Dougherty and Superintendent Barbara Nemko, students got advice from the staff at The Pathway Home, the nationally recognized program for wounded warriors on the campus of the California Veterans Home in Yountville.

The car was given to a Napa man, Xavier Bianchi, a veteran of three tours in Afghanistan, who helps fellow student-veterans attending Napa Valley College find housing, education and job opportunities through the Pathway Home.

On May 16, the auto shop students presented the car to Bianchi, who thanked and praised the students and offered to help them after graduation.

“I hope this will be an annual event,” said Dougherty, who developed a similar auto shop donation program in Solano County before joining Vintage High. He said his students exhibited “tenacity and critical thinking” in figuring out how to fix the electrical system of the 1999 Acura.

“We always wanted to give the car to someone in the community, and after Barbara Nemko suggested we try the Veterans Home, Mr. Dougherty worked it out,” said auto shop student Kenneth Perry of Napa, an 18-year-old guest student from Napa Valley Independent Studies.

“It’s something we all worked on, and it’s going for a good cause –we’re all learning to give back,” said junior Omar Lopez of Napa, 16.

“My dad was in the Army, which is the backbone of our country,” said Ethan Grant, a 17-year-old junior from Napa who said he intends to join the Army next year. “The veterans need to be taken care of, too, like everyone else – they just made a bigger sacrifice.”

Bianchi, a former Army staff sergeant, said he is honored and proud to have been chosen by the students.

“The car has enabled me to apply for a position at The Pathway Home this summer as a volunteer peer counselor, to dedicate as much of my time as I can to the Pathway veterans,” said Bianchi, whose family goes back three generations in Napa.