McMahon's Best-One Helps Struggling Families

For over 50 years, family-owned McMahon’s Best-One Tire has been serving communities through charity fundraisers.

And its latest effort aims to help struggling families “for good” this holiday season.

From the beginning of the month through Nov. 20, the Fort Wayne, Ind.-based dealership held its "Oil Changes for Good" campaign across its retail and commercial locations.

For every oil change sold at any of its stores, McMahon’s Best-One Tire donated highly needed food items to area food pantries.

Kim McMahon, who owns McMahon’s Best-One with her husband, Bubba McMahon, and business partner Randy Geyer, says they got the idea when she and her husband were traveling to visit their grandchildren in Maryland this past Halloween.

While checking through TSA at Fort Wayne International Airport, she overheard security staff expressing their frustrations over the recent government shutdown and not being paid.

“One of the women working there said some of the families were having a really tough time,” says Kim. “That kind of sparked, ‘Wait a minute! We could do something to help.’”

She then called Nikki Phillips, the dealership's director of retail development, from the airport and the team got busy coordinating "Oil Changes for Good." 

At press time, the company was on track to complete more than 1,000 oil changes, with over 1,000 items donated to food pantries, according to Kim.

She says Pat McMahon, Kim’s father-in-law who founded the business in 1969, always made it the company’s mission to give back to others.

“That’s been the spirit of our company since my father-in-law started it. It’s always been important to give back and support our community. It’s just something we do and we try to find new and different ways to do that.”

Since Kim and her husband began leading the company around 2000, they’ve been focused on continuing Pat’s legacy by organizing events throughout the year that raise money for charities. In October, McMahon’s Best-One Tire raised more than $26,000 for Veterans National Memorial Shrine and Museum and Honor Flight Northeast Indiana.

Now, when some families struggle to afford meals as the holidays approach, McMahon’s "Oil Changes for Good" initiative is donating boxes of food items - such as vegetable oil, cake mixes and powdered milk - to Community Harvest, Fort Wayne’s largest food bank, plus nearly 20 area pantries across the company’s locations.

In addition to donations from oil changes, stores are donating extra items collected from customers and employees who wanted to give a little more.

When the dealership made its first delivery to Community Harvest two weeks ago, the charity did not know about the "Oil Changes for Good" campaign and Kim says team members at the organization were thankful that McMahon's Best-One Tire was giving back.

“The need for their (Community Harvest) service is overwhelming," says Kim. "If you don’t ever find yourself in that situation, you don’t realize how many people depend on a food pantry for everyday items, so they were so beyond thrilled.”

As a staple in Fort Wayne and surrounding areas, McMahon’s Best-One Tire hopes to give back to special causes for many years ahead and Kim is encouraging all independent tire dealers to invest in their communities.

“Especially now, there are a lot of communities that are really hurting and anything that you can do to give back and help is so much appreciated. These are your customers. This is where you live and work. Anything you can do to give back and help is worth the effort.”