When Helina Mcphail came late into her Automotive Technology class one day, she didn’t know she was in for a big surprise. Just the day before, a tire had blown out on her car—luckily, she was safe, but she started to worry about how to afford a replacement.

“I started joking about it with my classmates,” says Mcphail. “I was saying things like ‘hey, want to go fix my tire?’”

During class that day, Dustin Young the Director of Retail Operations at Belle Tire had been speaking about job recruitment for the various Fort Wayne locations. He happened to overhear Helina’s conversation with her classmates.

“He came over to me and was like, ‘you need a tire?’ Then next thing I know, I have two free tires.”

According to Young, they both went to check out the situation with Mcphail’s car. Upon further inspection, not only did they find one but two blown out tires. She explains that she had been driving on the rims of her tires due to an issue in alignment which caused quick wear and tear. Young ran over to the Lima Rd. Belle Tire location and paid for two new tires that he gave to Mcphail.

“When you’re a college student, you just have so much going on,” says Young. “We always try to help people out that need help, and thankfully I have the ability to go get some tires and give them to people that need them.”

Mcphail is now working to realign her tires to make sure the blow outs don’t happen again any time soon, and she positively beams as she remembers Young’s generosity.

“It was a blessing,” says Mcphail. “I was so thankful for it. It made my whole day.”