A gift of freedom – how The Shed’s car giveaway changed a Canberra family’s life
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When Karen Yaldren walked into The Shed for its first birthday last month, she thought she was simply joining her sister for a browse.
She was admiring a display of pretty glasses when owner Adam Charif called out: “Hey Karen, catch!”
Adam tossed her a set of keys. Karen caught them – and then realised her life was about to change.
To celebrate a year since opening his Fyshwick second-hand shop, Adam had decided to give away his own Toyota Corolla to a Canberra family in genuine need. Around 150 nominations arrived, telling the stories of single parents, families under financial pressure, survivors of domestic violence and people whose worlds had narrowed without reliable transport.
“It broke my heart,” Adam said. He wished he had more cars to give, and choosing just one person was extraordinarily difficult. But Karen’s story stayed with him. A regular customer, she had spoken briefly about the hardship she was facing, although she had no idea her sister, Jenean, had nominated her.
For two years, Karen – a youth worker and mother of two who gives of herself to all within her orbit – had relied on a friend’s borrowed car. A separation had made life financially difficult, with a devastating turn of events further impacting her family’s stability in May this year. The borrowed car badly needed servicing, but Karen kept putting it off because she still had to get her children where they needed to go.
She knew Adam was giving a car away, but never imagined she would receive it. “I didn’t judge my own circumstances as bad enough,” she said, conscious of how many other people were doing it tough. Yet Adam knew she would accept the gift for what it was: something offered with love and no expectation in return.
That instinct to give is at the heart of The Shed. Adam has created a place where charity is practical and offered with dignity. Children’s clothes, baby toys and essentials for babies such as breast pumps are among the essentials he makes available free of charge. He also helps families moving into emergency housing with what they need to establish a home, and last Christmas distributed $2,500 worth of $50 vouchers.
For Adam, The Shed is far more than a business. It is the result of a lifetime of understanding how much practical kindness can matter. He grew up with very little, raised by a mother who did not have a car, and remembers what it was like to go hungry.
After eight years as a supervisor at the Green Shed and time running a removals company, he had watched truckloads of useful household goods destined for landfill. “It broke my heart”, he said.
He began setting aside items in case someone needed them, and when a warehouse became available to lease, he decided to build something of his own.
The result is a place shaped by generosity and kindness. Karen loves that The Shed reduces waste by rehoming donated goods, but says its real difference is the way Adam honours the spirit in which those items were given – not as a chance to profit from someone’s hardship, but as an opportunity to help. Both Adam and Karen note the inflated prices charged at some of the large charity op shops. This is not the spirit of The Shed.
“Adam is so generous as a human. He has his heart in the right spot,” Karen said. “The Shed is not a business to him. He is in business to do good work for the community, which is so necessary right now because everyone is doing it really hard.”
Adam’s gift was made even more meaningful by its simplicity. Nat’s Car Care in Queanbeyan gave the Corolla a full service, and then Adam handed it and the rego papers over, knowing that for one family, reliable transport could transform daily life.
It already has. The week after Karen received the car, she drove to the coast with her son. The Corolla ran beautifully, but what moved her most was where it could take them.
“It’s freedom,” she said. “Despite all the hardship, there is freedom and access to beautiful experiences. It’s access and equity, and I am so grateful.”
