Car Insurance

The disabled evacuee with chronic heart problems is trying to start his life over in Colorado Springs, and a local charity group has helped by giving him a car.

The help is coming from Northern Churches Care, one of 13 organizations that get a portion of their funding from The Gazette/ El Pomar Foundation Empty Stocking Fund.

“While I’m grateful that Colorado Springs has public transit, it’s just not reliable enough,” said Rivero, who needs to get to medical appointments on time.

The vehicle is a 1988 Mercury Grand Marquis with about 40,000 miles on it.

“It’s like a new car, absolutely no problems at all,” Rivero said. “It can be as cold as it gets here, and you walk out, turn the key and it cranks instantly. I’m really grateful to have received this.”

And while it has helped him move around Colorado Springs, the best gift that came with the car was a trip to Kansas City for Thanksgiving.

Northern Churches Care gave Rivero gasoline vouchers so he could make the almost 1,200-mile round-trip drive, allowing a reunion with relatives, including his aging mother.

“My mother is 79, and she is not in the best health,” he said. “I was very much afraid this might be the last Thanksgiving I get to spend with her.”

Rivero isn’t sure what happened to the car he owned in New Orleans. It was in the shop when Katrina hit, and he hasn’t seen it since.

Rivero hitchhiked out of New Orleans to safety just before Katrina hit. His spent about a month in a shelter in Baton Rouge. In late September, he boarded a bus with about 50 people and ended up in Colorado Springs.

Rivero said he couldn’t be happier.

“This has got to be the best place I’ve ever been in my life, as far as the kindness and just how nice people are,” he said. “I’m so grateful and consider myself extremely blessed to have come here.”