For more Political Cartoons on Cash for Clunkers visit MSNBC at:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32301112/ns/business-autos/displaymode/1247/?beginSlide=1&beginChapter=1&beginTab=1

Can’t Get Rid of Your Old Junker?

Here are five ways to clear your driveway of that clunker without taxing the environment or your wallet.

By James Tate of MSN Autos

Click to enlarge picture

Just because you have no more use for your old ride doesn’t mean someone can’t make good use of it.

No two ways about it, Americans are holding on to their cars longer. According to a recent study by automotive industry analyst R. L. Polk & Co., the average life span for a motor vehicle in the United States is now 112.8 months. That means cars are staying on the road more than 12 months longer than a decade ago.

While the reasons Americans are keeping their tired old cars and trucks longer than ever before are varied — ranging from fluctuating gas prices to uncertainty about the future of U.S. auto manufacturers — there is one common thread. “Customers are delaying purchases of new vehicles because their discretionary income has fallen,” says Dave Goebel, a consultant with Polk.

Although we know times are tough and money is tight, there is one problem with keeping your car longer: What do you do with the old clunker when you can’t bear to spend any more money on it? Dealers aren’t exactly jumping at the chance to accept trade-ins that have enough miles on the odometer to have driven to the moon and back. Neither are private buyers. But that doesn’t mean you simply have to dump it in a dirty old junkyard and further stress Mother Earth.

Here are five ways to send your old car on its way that will keep your environmental conscience and driveway clear.

1. Make a charity-specific donation
Most charities accept automobile donations no matter what its condition — just call and ask. Usually, towing is free or inexpensive, and you get a tax-deductible voucher for the book value of your car. After the charity of your choice scoops up what’s left of your prized vehicle, it will usually either try to repair the car well enough to sell, or it will sell the hunk of metal for scrap.

For example, Kidney Cars will happily accept cars, trucks, vans and boats as charitable donations. According to its Web site, the National Kidney Foundation uses any money realized from your vehicle for everything from public education to medical research. And here’s the best part: If it happens to earn more on the sale than the value of your voucher, you’ll get another receipt for the full amount of the deduction. Remember, the newer your car and the better its condition, the larger the write-off.

Some charities may refuse to accept a vehicle that doesn’t run, while others will accept cars and trucks no matter what their condition. Either way, charity-specific donations are a win-win for everyone involved.

2. Make a general donation
If your favorite charity isn’t interested in taking a broken-down auto off your hands, you can still turn the heap into a donation. There are hundreds of organizations all over the country that will pick up your car free of charge, sell or scrap it, and then give the proceeds of the sale to any charity you choose. The best part is you still get the tax deduction, just like in a charity-specific donation, and you are contributing to a cause you care about. There are as many Web sites dedicated to helping you donate your old car as there are reasons you want to get rid of it.

 http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1059746&page=0

http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009905070319

ST. GEORGE – This week, when so many Americans are spinning their wheels trying to think of the perfect Mother’s Day gift, the National Kidney Foundation wants to remind of a unique gift – you know the broken car she’s been begging you to get out of her driveway? Donate it to Kidney Kars.

Towing is free, and it’s tax deductible.

Your Kidney Kars donation will honor Mom by giving her back the garage! Funds raised through Kidney Kars benefit Utah programs of medical research, patient services, organ donation and public education. You may also find yourself in the express lane for a tax deduction.

Every day, 110 Americans choose the National Kid-ney Foundation’s Kidney Kars Program. Vehicles are sold either at auction or for parts, with 83 percent of the proceeds supporting the programs of the National Kidney Foundation of Utah.

For more information, or to donate your car, van, truck or boat, call (800) TOW-KARS (869-5277) or donate online at www.towkars.org.

http://deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,705294344,00.html

Published: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 5:31 p.m. MDT

Deseret News –  By James Davis

OREM — Giving part of himself has gone a long way for a Utah County restaurant owner.

Last fall, Marcus Gilbert donated one of his kidneys to 17-year-old Juan Delgado, who worked Gilbert’s Orem Charley’s Grilled Subs franchise. Since then, the corporate offices of the sandwich chain have adopted the National Kidney Foundation as the corporation’s charity of choice.

On Tuesday, Gilbert presented American Kidney Foundation of Utah and Idaho CEO Deen Vetterli with a check for $10,000 in behalf of the Charley’s Grilled Subs corporation. The donation is a result of a company-wide fundraising event in February, during which Charley’s set aside a portion of the sales of every one of the restaurant’s top-selling Philly Cheesesteak sandwiches up to $10,000.

“Initially, our goal was just to help Juan and his family out,” said Gilbert, who owns Charley’s franchises in Orem and Layton. “He had medical bills, and we wanted to raise some money to help them meet those expenses.”

That goal certainly snowballed. While both were recovering in the hospital in October, Charley’s Grilled Subs founder and CEO Charley Shin showed up with a check for $10,000 to help cover Delgado’s medical expenses, which are expected to exceed $100,000.

Since then, Charley’s franchises around the country have put out collection canisters to help Delgado, as well as to raise money for the National Kidney Foundation.

“It speaks for itself what a great humanitarian thing this is to do,” Vetterli said. “One of the main goals of the National Kidney Foundation is, of course, to promote organ donation.”

Vetterli said the $10,000 donation will be put directly toward supporting the foundation’s programs.

The National Kidney Foundation offers patient services for those who suffer with diseases of the kidney — from emergency financial assistance to medication and transportation. The foundation in Utah and Idaho also gives away as many as 20 educational scholarships annually to deserving patients who want to become self-sufficient, she said.

The National Kidney Foundation will also use the donation for medical research programs through the University of Utah to study the cause, treatment and prevention of kidney disease. Finally, the money will help to educate the public on kidney disease and on donation awareness.

One of the foundation’s efforts is the Good Samaritan program, through which people donate kidneys out of a desire to serve.

“There are many, many stories throughout Utah and Idaho where there are more and more people donating kidneys on a Good Samaritan basis,” Vetterli said, “which is really quite remarkable.”

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/304540/17/

From left, National Kidney Foundation of Utah and Idaho CEO Deen Vetterli, Charley’s Grilled Subs franchise owner Marcus Gilbert, Charley’s employee Juan Delgado, and Charley’s Marketing Director Betsy Wright stand for the media in front of Charley’s Grilled Subs at the University Mall in Orem Tuesday, March 31, 2009. Charley’s corporate offices donated $10,000 to the National Kidney Foundation Tuesday. Gilbert donated a kidney to his employee Delgado in September 2008.

Wednesday, 01 April 2009

Kidney donation to Orem boy spurs others to help

Michael Rigert – DAILY HERALD

OREM — The initiative and generosity of Marcus Gilbert, owner of a local sandwich store, already saved the life of an Orem boy, and his example has led to others helping those with kidney disease. Gilbert, a Roy resident, owns two Charley’s Grilled Subs franchises, including the one at the University Mall in Orem. In September, Gilbert donated one of his healthy kidneys to his employee, Juan Delgado, who was suffering from end stage renal disease.Delgado, nearly fully recovered from the transplant surgery, said on Tuesday that he’s back attending classes at Timpanogos High School and planning to return to work at Gilbert’s store this summer. “I’m almost 100 percent,” said Delgado, who added that it’s still hard for him to believe that his boss gave him a kidney after he had waited four years for one. But Delgado’s sister, Esmerelda, also an Orem employee of Gilbert’s, and the one who initially informed her boss about her brother’s medical condition, said the act was just like her boss. “I’m glad for him doing what he’s done,” she said. “He’s really nice.” Delgado and his family were at the sandwich shop in the mall’s food court Tuesday morning to celebrate the donation of $10,000 from the Charley’s Grilled Subs company to the National Kidney Foundation in Utah. Because of Gilbert’s example and Delgado’s story, the company in February dedicated a portion of each sub sold at all its locations during National Philly Cheesesteak Month to fight kidney disease. While Delgado was hospitalized for about two weeks in his recovery process, Gilbert said it took him about seven to eight weeks to get back up to full speed again following the surgery. “He felt better right away, and I didn’t feel that good,” he said. “It was a surprise for me that they said the donor actually has a longer recovery time.” Still, Gilbert said he’d do it all over again in a heartbeat. He said it’s important for people to know that donors have no long-term side effects, and both a donor and a transplant recipient can go on to live long and healthy lives. He hopes others are willing to be kidney donors. “I’m blessed to have been part of a miracle in someone else’s life,” Gilbert said. Apparently his goodwill was infectious. While laid up in the hospital for a week following the surgery, Gilbert said he was personally visited by the CEO of Charley’s Grilled Subs, Charley Shin, who wrote out a personal check to Delgado in the sum of $10,000 to help cover his hospital bills. Gilbert has continued to raise funds for Delgado at his two store locations with the hopes of eventually paying for the family’s approximately $100,000 in hospital bills. He said he’d rather Delgado concentrate on his education and going to college rather than having to worry about medical debts. Those interested in making a donation to kidney patients on behalf of Delgado and others can go to www.charleys.com, click on the “Eat a Cheesesteak, Save a Life” icon and make a contribution. Deen Vetterli, CEO of the National Kidney Foundation of Utah and Idaho, said the company’s donation will go toward patient services, medical research at the University of Utah and public education programs about kidney disease and how to prevent it. In Utah, she said, there are approximately 2,200 patients on dialysis, and of those, 230 are on the waiting list for a donor kidney. Nationally, 80,000 individuals with kidney disease are on waiting lists for transplants. What’s surprising, she said, is how many donors like Gilbert are willing to share a kidney with someone they hardly know or who are strangers to them, but who might die without it. “The Good Samaritan ones are so heart-warming,” she said.

http://www.sltrib.com/valleywest/ci_11576573

Utahn wins nationwide sweepstakes

Kidney Kars » The South Jordan resident was picked from about 10,000 contest entries.

By Anna Kartashova–The Salt Lake Tribune–Posted: 01/29/2009 12:01:00 AM MST

Photo courtesy National Kidney Foundation Richard and Shoran Cloward and their neighbors, Gary and Darlene Odenwalder, spent four days in Pebble Beach, Calif., as winners of National Kidney Foundation's Kidney Cars 25th anniversary sweepstakes.

When a South Jordan resident donated his '93 Dodge truck to a charity organization last October, he had no idea he was entering a sweepstakes.

Needless to say, Richard Cloward was nothing short of surprised after winning a three-night, four-day trip to Pebble Beach, Calif.

The National Kidney Foundation decided to hold a contest as part of its car-for-charity program's 25th anniversary to distinguish Kidney Kars among its emulators, said Luz Lewis-Perez, director of development and programs of National Kidney Foundation of Utah.

"There's been too many copy cats in the past years," she said, adding Kidney Kars was the nation's first car-for-charity program.

Everyone who donated vehicles to the foundation between Sept. 1 and Dec. 31 was automatically entered in the sweepstakes. Among nearly 10,000 donations nationwide within those four months, 1,443 cars were from the Beehive State.

"We're so glad someone in Utah got to win this contest," Lewis-Perez said. "Utahns have been so generous to Kidney Kars."

When Cloward learned he won the grand prize, he was a bit skeptical.

"You're always a little suspicious, but it took a couple of questions and answers [to know] it was legit," he said.

Cloward has donated three other vehicles to the program before: a '95 Dodge Intrepid with a blown engine and two Ford trucks -- one with a dead engine and another with a defunct transmission -- that he used for his own business,

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Cottonwood Landscapes.Although it wasn't Cloward's first trip to California, it was his first to Pebble Beach, which is known for its high-end golf courses."Not everybody plays Pebble Beach at $400 a round," Cloward said. "You gotta pay lots of money or be a member. It's first class."

The $20,000 value vacation was paid for four people, so Cloward invited his wife of 45 years, Shoran, and next-door neighbors Gary and Darlene Odenwalder.

"I play golf, and he doesn't, so it's a trip of a lifetime for a golfer to go to Pebble Beach," Gary Odenwalder said.

Utah's program is among the top three most substantive car donation programs in the nation, Lewis-Perez said. Donors are usually families with children seeking a tax deduction, and Utah fits those demographics well.

The majority of donated cars National Kidney Foundation receives are 13 years or older and are parted and recycled if they don't pass safety and emission inspection.

Lewis-Perez said it's a great way to get rid of a car that no longer runs, takes up driveway space and is a hazard to the environment with its low fuel efficiency and high emissions.

However, about a quarter of all donated vehicles can be resold, she said, and 87 cents for every $1 raised goes toward care for local kidney patients, according to the foundation's Web site. The money is used for medical research and kidney screenings for about 4,000 dialysis and transplant patients.

"There's not a more responsible way to get rid of a vehicle," Lewis-Perez said.

It typically takes two to five business days after the Kidney Foundation receives your information. It is also possible to request 24 hour pick up service (in most areas) for special circumstances.

Kidney Kars accepts any car that has a clear title, inflated tires and has not been dismantled or parted out. It can tow your vehicle from almost anywhere.

The tax deduction generally applies to those who itemize deductions on their 1040 federal tax return. The amount of the tax deduction depends on the actual sale value of the Kidney Kar donation.

Source: http://www.towkars.org/faq.php.

Donation informationTo donate a car, truck, motor home or boat to Kidney Kars, call 800-TOW-KARS (869-5277) or visit www.towkars.org/howtodonate.php.

“We were all moved to witness such an act of faith and kindness by Charley’s franchisee, Marcus Gilbert, who donated his kidney to save the life of a 16-year-old employee, Juan Delgado,” shares James Pa, Senior Director of Marketing for Charley’s. “Partnering with the National Kidney Foundation was a simple extension of Charley’s commitment to strengthening our neighbors.”

Juan’s battle with end-stage kidney disease began three years ago. Juggling school and mounting health problems, Juan had difficulty finding and holding on to a job. In March 2008, Marcus stepped forward and offered him a position at Charleys in University Mall in Orem, Utah, but his giving didn’t stop there. Marcus donated his kidney to Juan this past fall.

“There are more than 100,000 Americans currently on the national waiting list for organ transplants,” says John Davis, National Kidney Foundation CEO. “Partnerships, like the one NKF shares with Charley’s Grilled Subs, help support our efforts to educate the public about the life-saving power of organ donation and provide support to organ donors and their families.”

Taking the lead from one of its franchise owners who gave the gift of life to an employee, Charley’s Grilled Subs® will give their own gift this month to further the National Kidney Foundation’s (NKF) life-saving work.  

Throughout Philly CheeseSteak Month, celebrated in January, Charley’s will donate a portion of each sandwich sold  to support the NKF’s work in research, patient services, public and professional education, advocacy and organ donation.

 For more information, visit www.Charleys.com   and click on Eat a CheeseSteak…Save a Life.

About the National Kidney Foundation
The National Kidney Foundation is dedicated to preventing and treating kidney and urinary tract diseases, improving the health and well being of individuals and families affected by these diseases and increasing availability of all organs for transplantation. To learn more about kidney disease, risk factors and organ donation contact the National Kidney Foundation at www.kidney.org or (800)622-9010.