These ‘Wheels of Success’ keep working moms moving forward after the hurricanes

By Sean Daly

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    TAMPA, Florida (WFTS) — For 21 years, a local nonprofit called “Wheels of Success” has given the gift of transportation — and freedom.

This year, in particular, was one of the group’s most pivotal, as a devastating hurricane season and resultant flooding left scores of people without cars — cars to take them to work, to the grocery store, to the doctor.

That’s where Susan Jacobs drives in to help.

“Cars are so critical to everything in our lives,” said the founder of Wheels of Success. “I was running a staffing agency and that was always the complaint: I can’t take that job! How am I going to get there?”

This week at RNR Tire Express in Tampa, three women who lost cars in three different hurricanes — Ian, Helene, Milton — were given fresh sets of “Wheels of Success,” donated cars from companies like RNR Tire Express.

One of those women, Naila Beganovic, is a single mother who was forced to care for her whole family when both of her parents died this year. She works with patients with dementia, a job she loves and doesn’t want to lose.

“It was hard for me to get back and forth from work without a car,” said Beganovic. “I had to catch the bus, use Ubers. I had a rental car for a month and it was killing me.”

This gift from Wheels of Success will change everything in a very good way, she says.

“I feel relieved, I feel great,” she says. “A huge weight has been lifted off me.”

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