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Portage couple giving away their car

Posted at 6:04 PM, Jan 10, 2018
and last updated 2018-01-10 18:04:02-05

PORTAGE, Mich. -- Sean and Autumn Hopwood know what it's like to go through hard times, and they want to make those hard times a little easier for someone by donating their 2003 Mazda Tribute.

The couple is getting ready to hike the entire Appalachian Trail this March, and say they can do without their only vehicle. It has 200,000 miles on it, but it still runs great.

The Hopwoods say it's never broken down on them, and they recently put new tires on it.

“We’ve been blessed with more and more. And we still don’t have a lot, but we know how hard it is to come from nothing," said Sean. "And so as we were preparing to hike the Appalachian Trail, we know that there’s a lot of people out in the community who don’t have what we do. So instead of us profiting more from it, we decided to bless somebody else with it.”

The car was partially given to the Hopwoods when they first moved to Portage and got married three years ago. They say that down-payment helped them get through some hard times.

“When Sean and I got engaged, we were living with his mom, we had no money, we just had moved here, and we had no car. So she was driving us everywhere," said Autumn.

Since the car has sentimental value, they want to make sure the car goes to someone who really needs it, and will use it.

“One thing too is we really want to meet them personally so we can really connect with them," said Sean. "One thing we’ve learned from going through hard times is we couldn’t do it without other people."

When the Hopwoods return from their hiking trip this fall, they plan on buying a new vehicle.