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Joshua Resource Center, a faith-based organization with the goal of providing educational, life-management and work skills training for women seeking self-sufficiency, has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the CarMax Foundation thanks to the recommendation of a CarMax employee who is a former JRC client.

Rebecca Estes is now employed at a job she loves as management assistant at the CarMax Auto Superstore in Knoxville, but two years ago she was facing the most difficult circumstances of her life.

"I lost my job, I lost my husband, I lost my car and I lost my home, all in the same week," recalled Estes.

She never, in her wildest nightmares, would have thought her life could take such a dramatic turn. Estes was a wife, a mother, a church volunteer, held a good job and was active in her children's lives. But, when the blows began to fall -- her husband left her for another woman, and the division of her company in which she held a leadership position was totally eliminated when a new CEO took over -- they took more than just her livelihood, her home and her car. They took her self-esteem.

"I was a basket case," Estes freely admitted, adding that she and two of her children, then ages 13 and 15, were trying to survive on her severance package as she tried to rebuild her life.

A ray of hope came when Estes accepted the invitation from a friend to attend a prayer group with her. Here, she was told about Joshua Resource Center.

Estes made the decision to call JRC, knowing that she needed additional education to better herself. As she attended the New Beginnings Program, Estes earned her GED, found resources for furthering her education, for legal advice, for feeding her children, for keeping her computer skills honed so she would be able to find another job. She had not had to create a resume in years, and a volunteer helped her with that when she began her job search. JRC also helped her find a new home, even helping her furnish it.

"They gave me the resources to survive," Estes said. And, at her graduation from the program, her self-esteem was built back up to where it needed to be.

Giving back

Estes said she applied for a job at CarMax via their Web site and began working in the Knoxville office in August 2006. She has volunteered with JRC, telling her story to others to both offer hope to women who find themselves in her situation and also to raise funds for the program.

"It's important to me to be able to give something back," Estes said.

When her boss, Joe Jakubek, later asked her to compile a list of nonprofit groups in the Knoxville are to be considered for a grant through the CarMax Foundation, Estes was elated.

"I thought, boy, do I know a 501(c)(3) group!" she said. She compiled a list of nonprofits as requested, and on Christmas Eve last year, found that JRC would receive a $10,000 grant.

"I am proud and so thankful," she said. "This is what Pat (Thompson's) program is all about. I've been there, done that and now I'm giving back. Now I'm a woman whose mind has been restored. God has been so good."

Pat Thompson, founder and president of JRC, said, "The donation of $10,000 given by the CarMax Foundation is a significant indication of their interest in empowering women to become self-sufficient and to support JRC in that mission. Rebecca Estes, a former JRC client and current CarMax employee, is a wonderful example of a woman who simply needed JRC's help in her time of need. Less than two years later, she is serving other women by serving on a JRC committee and has been instrumental in the CarMax grant to JRC."

CarMax Foundation

CarMax is a company founded with the goal of making it easier for consumers to buy a used car. The CarMax Foundation was established in 2003 to support the communities where the company's associates live and work. Over the past several years, the foundation has accomplished its goal by providing volunteers, matching gifts, grants and disaster relief to worthy nonprofit organizations.

According to Trina H. Lee , public relations manager with CarMax Inc., "The grant to JRC is part of our new Regional Giving program where the Foundation provides $100,000 to each of our seven regions per year to grant locally to organizations that help support local nonprofit organizations centered around education and youth leadership. Our store leadership selects five people from our store management teams to be part of a Regional Giving Committee. The Regional Giving Committees discuss with store associates the programs, within the giving guidelines, that they want to be selected for such a grant."

Based on the information they receive from the stores, the Regional Giving Committees nominate the local organizations to receive a grant and decide how much money to grant out of their Regional Giving Fund. The grant to JRC is part of the Regional Giving program, and was nominated by the store associates and the Regional Giving Committee and then finally approved by the CarMax Foundation Board of Directors. For more information, visit www.carmaxcares.com.