A free, hands-on class in St. Helens that teaches women and kids the roadside basics every driver should know: jump-starting, changing a tire, and checking your own car before trouble finds you.
Owner Teresa Bails kept running into the same story: capable adults, often women, stranded on the side of the road. Not because their car couldn't be fixed in five minutes, but because nobody had ever shown them how. Most dads teach their sons this stuff; a lot of daughters never get the lesson.
Teresa also knows it lands differently coming from her. "It's easier for a woman to say, here's how you do it," she puts it. No condescension, no jargon, and nobody made to feel dumb for asking. So she built the class she wished every woman in the county had already taken.
This isn't mechanic school. We're not teaching you to replace an alternator. It's roadside confidence: the stuff that gets you safely back on the road, or keeps you from getting ripped off.
Hook up cables in the right order, safely, on your own car, taught at Teresa's own station.
Where your jack and donut spare live, and how to use them, led by Zack at his station.
Oil, fluid, brake, and tire checks you can do in your driveway in five minutes.
The class runs as five hands-on stations in small groups, each led by Teresa or one of our technicians. You rotate through every station, so everyone touches the tools and nobody just watches.
This is a family class by design. We hold it at the family's property rather than the shop. That means no lifts and no shop hazards, plus a setup that actually mimics being stranded on the side of the road, because that's the scenario we're preparing you for.
Little ones get age-appropriate jobs that mirror what mom and dad are learning: watching for traffic, holding the flag, staying safely in the right spot while a tire gets changed. For kids under six there's a separate mini-class, and the owner's oldest daughter helps look after the youngest attendees.
Spots are limited by how many small groups we can run, so call the shop to get on the interest list, and we'll contact everyone to find dates that work.
One afternoon, free, hands-on. Call the shop and ask about the Confident Car Care Workshop.
Call (503) 867-0609