Spencer Wasmuth working on a healthcare worker's vehicle. (supplied photo/Duane LaFreniere)

By Keaton Brown

free oil change

Local dealership offering free oil changes to Battlefords residents laid off due to COVID-19

May 27, 2020 | 2:00 PM

A local dealership is offering free oil changes to Battlefords residents who have been laid off due to COVID-19.

Duane LaFreniere, owner and dealer operator at Bridges Chevrolet Buick GMC, said they are offering this service to anyone from the Battlefords who has lost their job or been laid off due to COVID-19.

“If people have been laid off, due to the pandemic, so literally from the middle of March until now if they have been laid off temporarily we will just give them a free oil change,” he said.

People who are interested in taking advantage of the offer need to provide proof of unemployment.

“Basically they just need to bring their driver’s licence, just to be able to prove who they are, and something stating that they are on EI or temporarily laid off because of the COVID,” LaFreniere said.

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Bridges Chevrolet ran a similar oil change program in April, where they were offering the free oil changes to frontline healthcare workers. LaFreniere said they had a lot of people take advantage of their offer and received a lot of positive feedback about the program.

“We are still trying to finish them up. We still got a few more days of them yet but we did about 200 free oil changes,” he said. “It really took off. We had anticipated probably doing about 100 of them and budgeted $10,000 because it is about $100 an oil change and we ended up doing about 200 so it really took off, it was pretty awesome actually.”

LaFreniere said they are making one significant change to the free oil change program this time around.

“Anybody who does come in for those free oil changes, so the people that qualify based on being on EI, we will also enter their name in because we are also going to be having a draw for $500 as well,” he said.

Bridges Chevrolet said they will be taking bookings for the free oil changes between June 1 and June 15. They will do the oil changes outside of that time frame but anyone looking to take advantage of their offer needs to book during those two weeks.

LaFreniere said he and others thought this was a great way to give back to their community during a difficult time for everyone.

“This is obviously not something I’m doing to try to sell cars because if people are on unemployment they can’t buy a car. So this is truly from the heart. This is something that I talked about with my managers and said ‘This is my idea what do you think?’ and they were really for it. They just thought it was a great idea, and I think it is,” he said.

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Keaton.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow