When recent Wasatch High School graduate Yahir Gandarilla went to school on one of his last days there, he drove an old Jeep Cherokee. When he left that afternoon, he had the keys to a new Ford Ranger.
“I was completely surprised,” he said. “I was like, ‘Oh my Lord.’ I couldn’t believe that I won it.”
He was picked for the prize as part of the school district’s Cool2Care program, an initiative that rewards good student behavior with Cool2Care cards, and if one is really fortunate, a new vehicle.
As excited as Gandarilla was to win a new set of shiny wheels through Labrum Chevrolet, he was far from the first. In fact, he was the 14th over the years, and neither the program nor the traction it has gained with students show signs of slowing.
The car giveaway dates back to 2010, when he became the principal of the high school, said Shawn Kelly, now Wasatch County School District’s director of operations and human resources.
At the time, Kelly noticed other programs across the Wasatch Front that incentivized students with automobiles as grand prizes. He wondered if he could start a similar initiative in the Heber Valley.
He had already worked with other district staff members to develop the Cool2Care program and hoped to give it a little more pop.
“I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we could give a car away,'” he said. “There had been discussions for years about this, but I approached Danny Labrum with the idea.”
The local businessman was excited to get involved.
“He bit off,” Kelly said. “He’s like, ‘Absolutely, that sounds like the best thing I’ve ever heard, and so that was the beginning of the program.'”
The first few years, the vehicles were slightly used, but the more recent prizes have been brand new.
He also said a free car really does mean a free car. The student gets the title, not just a temporary lease, and Labrum fronts the cost of taxes and other necessary expense. The only payment students offer is through their behavior, and the only strings are that a winner must drive their new vehicle in a few local parades and leave the decals on for a year.
After that, its all theirs.
“Anti-bullying, be involved, be a good person — that’s the whole catalyst behind the program,” Kelly said. “We use that vehicle as a catalyst for behavior at school, attendance and being involved because we know that involvement in school is one of the biggest factors in students’ success.”
Kelly said didn’t have a favorite winner among the 14; every year is special.
“To me, it’s almost karma, divine intervention, that we’ve had some pretty cool stories,” he said.
He’s seen winners who were working to help their parents pay bills, winners who’d endured a recent tragedy, and winners who hadn’t thought they’d be able to go to college because they didn’t have reliable transportation.
The program has continued to evolve over the years, and now the district has started an accompanying tradition called Cool Teachers Care in which educators have a chance for a free one-year lease to a vehicle. This year, Labrum Chevrolet loaned a teacher a Ford Bronco Sport, Mountainland One Stop gave them $1,000 of gas, and local Allstate Insurance agent Brian Mair outfitted them with $1,000 worth of insurance.
“This whole thing started because Danny Labrum believed in the community, he and his wife,” Kelly said. “People have asked me all the time, ‘How did you get that to happen?’ And I’m like I had a dealer who believed in giving back, and he thought the best way to give back was to the kids.”
He said Labrum’s community-oriented efforts could warrant their own story, but — unsurprisingly, according to Kelly — a reporter couldn’t reach the businessman even with the district’s help.
“He’s very humble, and he probably doesn’t want to brag,” Kelly said. “He comes every year. They do come, the whole family. They stand on stage, they’re there for it, but that’s about the only time you see or hear from him.”
A few weeks after he won, Gandarilla began running up his new Ranger’s odometer with a trip to Wyoming. He took the truck over some rocky areas and said he is excited to test its off-road capabilities some more.
Soon, he’ll take it to Weber State University, where he plans to study history and return to Heber City to teach.
“I have a lot of patience, and I always liked history,” he said.
