Graduate gets wheels thanks to classmates' generosity

When she hits the gas on her trip east for college this fall, Vanessa Maycumber is going to have one big smile on her face.

Why shouldn't she? Because of her classmates' big hearts, Maycumber will be driving east in her first car, a light green 2000 Hyundai Accent. Two of Maycumber's fellow Flathead High School graduates gave up their chances to claim the car, ensuring it would be hers.

"I was just kind of overwhelmed," said Maycumber, 18 years old and headed, on scholarship, to Wheaton College in Illinois. "It was 4 in the morning, so I was just kind of out of it. Was I still dreaming?"

Fortunately not, but her dream came true anyway.

The car was the grand prize at the all-night party parents hosted after the June 3 graduation ceremony. Mark Weed and Wayne Grilley Auto Sales donated the Hyundai for the cause. It was part of more than $10,000 in prizes the community gave so graduates could have a send-off to remember.

The drawing was the climax of the party. Each senior had received a ticket for the drawing when they arrived, and those still on hand at the end of the night had a shot at winning the car.

Maycumber's good fortune began when she was the first of 10 chosen as finalists to win the Hyundai.

Once the finalists were set, a second drawing would determine the winner. Again, names were drawn, only this time finalists were eliminated when selected. Maycumber's name again was drawn first.

Ending, she thought, her hopes of owning the car.

Heather Wallace, who drives a Nissan Altima, watched from her place on stage.

So did Mack Andrews. When he had been called as a finalist, friends in the crowd teasingly hollered, "You don't need a car, you already drive a Mercedes."

When organizers offered seniors the chance to barter for a place on stage, Andrews took a look at Maycumber talking with some of his buddies. Something clicked.

"I felt she wanted the car a lot, and she needed it more than I did," Andrews said.

Maycumber had been in recovery mode after a tough year. Her mother had died June 24, 2005, from cancer. She had been suffering for some time, Maycumber speculated, but had not been diagnosed until a month before her death.

Since her parents' divorce a few years earlier, Maycumber had lived primarily with her father, Frank. The two of them get by with an older truck and van.

Maycumber doesn't even have a driver's license.

Still, she had worked hard and won various scholarships allowing her to pursue studies in psychology and French at Wheaton.

Andrews knew her from a couple classes in their freshman and sophomore years. Now, from his spot on stage, he offered to trade and give her a shot at the car.

"I yelled out her name," Andrews said. "She looked up and was all surprised. I said, 'Come up here.' She came up on stage with a big smile and gave me a hug."

The elimination round proceeded. Wallace remained.

Samantha Riebe, another who remained onstage, was thinking about the 2000 Ford Explorer Sport she drives.

"We were talking," she said of Andrews when only four or five were left, "and we were both hoping we didn't win it. There were a couple girls out there who didn't have a car."

After watching Andrews' generosity, she was moved to offer her spot to Lauren Voltz.

Voltz took Riebe's spot but soon was eliminated.

Finally, only Maycumber and Wallace were left. The next name called would claim the runner-up prize: a $1,400 car sound system donated by Rudy's Autosound.

The last one standing got the car.

Then Maycumber's name was drawn for the sound system for which she had no use. That left the car to Wallace.

"Someone yelled out, 'Give it to Vanessa,'" Wallace said. "I said, 'Does she have a car?' They said, 'No.'"

"I started to walk off stage," Maycumber remembered. "But then Heather said, 'Wait a minute, why don't we trade?'"

Maycumber turned back to Wallace, who was ready to make good on her offer.

"They handed me the keys and I just handed them to her and gave her a hug," Wallace said. "Later, I found out she really had the need. I'm glad she got it."

Three days later, Maycumber still was stunned by the generosity of her fellow grads.

"I'm just overwhelmed," Maycumber said. "I feel indebted to Mack and Heather."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com