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For The Washington Post

Virginia Oliver

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Tigger Porter

Shane Porter knew he was dying of cancer when he one day came home with a rusty 1969 Jeepster Commando that had no seats and a shoddy engine.

He purchased the battered vehicle in 2016 as a family project to work on with his wife and their two sons, Michael and Tim, now 24 and 22. It was intended to be a bonding activity.

“He knew he wasn’t going to be around much longer,” said Tigger Porter, who met her husband when she was 14 and he was 15. “He thought, ‘you know what, I want good memories. I want to do this.’”

The family took on the project and tinkered away on the Jeepster until Shane Porter died in January 2022 at age 57, after a lengthy battle with bladder cancer and lymphoma.

“Up until a month before he passed away, he was in the garage working on the Jeep,” Tigger Porter said of her husband, who worked for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection for 30 years and was a fire captain.

After Shane Porter’s death, his family let the Jeepster languish in the garage. The partially done project was too difficult to pick back up; a painful reminder of a task that she and her sons couldn’t bring themselves to complete.

“We couldn’t do it,” said Tigger Porter, a paramedic.

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Although the Porter family couldn’t fathom finishing the project, they also couldn’t imagine getting rid of the barely functioning vehicle.

“It has sentimental value,” Tigger Porter explained. “I get teary-eyed every time I go around it.”

Family photo

So the car sat there — until last May, when Bob Mauger, a longtime friend of the family, took note of it one day when he was visiting. Mauger is an automotive technology teacher at Corona High School in Corona, Calif., and when he saw the timeworn Jeep, he said, a lightbulb went on.

“This would be a good project for my students to complete,” he recalled thinking to himself.

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He pitched the idea to his advanced class, which includes junior and senior students, and they were enthusiastically on board.

“They were like, ‘we have to do this for the family,’” Mauger said.

Porter and her sons were delighted by the idea, too.

“It was going to help the kids learn, which is what my husband was all about,” said Tigger Porter, who graduated from Corona High School in 1984.

In their automotive class, students are taught basic maintenance and light repairs, including how to fix brakes and do oil changes, as well as complete external restorations. They regularly work on teachers’ and parents’ vehicles.

Corona-Norco Unified School District

“We do work for community members and parents of students that can’t afford to have their brakes done,” said Mauger, adding that nearly <a href="https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/california/districts/corona-norco-unified-school-district/corona-high-school-2018" target=_blank>60 percent of students</a> at the high school come from economically disadvantaged homes. Car owners are expected to cover the cost of any needed parts, but the students work free.

In addition to acquiring new skills, “the kids are learning how to give back,” Mauger said. “They’re not just learning how to fix their own car, but they’re learning how to be a good human. That’s what the world needs.”

Repairing the Porter family’s vehicle was the class’s most significant project because of the meaning behind it. It also proved more complicated than the students had anticipated.

“It was a project that I knew was going to be a lot of work, but it’s not just a car,” said Judah Castillo, 17. “It was very meaningful.”

Bob Mauger

“It wasn’t running, engine parts were missing, the cooling system wasn’t functioning,” said Mauger, who, before becoming a teacher, was a mechanic. Plus, “we noticed there were some structural issues.”

It took 15 months to address all the problems, and many students spent their free time after school and during the summer months to get it done. Some even continued contributing to the project after they graduated. They rebuilt the engine, fixed electrical issues, revived the cooling system, sealed the transmission and transfer case and repaired rust.

“They were so dedicated,” Mauger said. “I’m super proud of my students.”

Mauger’s advanced automotive class partnered with other classes at the school — including the metal shop class — to polish off the final product. About 22 students worked on the Jeepster.

“There was so much collaboration,” he said, adding that the school offers robust trade programs, including an aviation lab, a wood shop class and other courses that teach technical skills.

After restoring the car, students repainted it. By the time they were done, it was gleaming. More importantly, though, it functioned properly.

“The main goal was to make it drivable and safe,” said Mauger, who paid for many of the new car parts out of pocket. The repairs cost about $600.

While there were several obstacles and hiccups along the way, he felt as though “Shane was with us the whole time,” Mauger said. “I think he would be thankful that we were able to give this gift to his boys and his wife.”

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The students presented the revived Jeepster to the Porter family July 27. Tim Porter — who enlisted in the Army and left for boot camp Tuesday — was there in person, and his brother, Michael Porter, is in the Air Force, and watched on FaceTime from Nebraska.

“Everybody was crying,” Mauger said. “It was just a room full of tears.”

“I know they’ll have that car for a long time,” Castillo said. “It feels rewarding to see our work pay off.”

Porter and her sons were grateful for the students’ long-term commitment to the car.

“They had no idea who we were, but they did it,” Tigger Porter said of the students. “This was truly a work of love.”

Driving the car is “like no other feeling. I can’t even describe it,” Tigger Porter said, adding that she feels closest to her husband when she is behind the wheel of his Jeep. “I get to reminisce about my boys and Shane and the things we used to do.”

Mauger said his goal was for the car to be a celebration of Shane Porter’s life rather a symbol of his family’s loss.

“It’s something that the family can enjoy and have Dad with them,” he said. “Shane will always be there.”

McGill University, BA

Columbia University, MS in journalism 

Sydney Page is a staff reporter who writes for The Washington Post’s Inspired Life section, a collection of stories about humanity. She has been a contributor to The Post since 2018.

Sydney Page

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High school students rebuilt Shane Porter's family Jeep after he died

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