It was an emotional day for a Wagga teenager when he finally had his wish come true after two years.
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Jarrod Roesler, 19, has faced some tough hurdles in life, from renal failure to losing his best mate in a tragic farming accident.
Jarrod was the first recipient of a wish from the Make-A-Wish Wagga branch and rather than take it for himself, he decided to ask for one in honour of his mate, Jack.
His friend has been restoring an old car and Jarrod asked if he could have the car fully restored to honour Jack’s vision, which was never realised due to the accident.
“Seeing it completed, I never expected it to hit me as it has,’ he said. “I would never have been able to get it there and I am so thankful for those who made it happened.”
Jarrod was diagnosed with renal failure when he was 12 and thrown into a completely different world.
“I was hooked to a machine for four years and then I got the transplant so I am a normal kid now,” he said. “It’s why I am taking the reigns of the car and get to finish it myself.”
Jarrod teared up when talking about his best friend and said he was a great young bloke who would be chuffed to see the car.
“He would think it was the best thing ever,” he said. “He would be pretty proud of it. It is pretty special.”
Jarrod said he would be forever grateful to all those who helped make the restoration happen and he couldn’t wait to finish the job and take it for a spin.
Make-A-Wish volunteer Randall Brooks approached TAFE and the GEO Group, which runs Junee Correctional Centre, to see if some of the inmates – who were completing courses – could help restore the car.
“I am very happy to see that we have been able to complete it,” he said. “If someone wanted to do this car up it would cost around $18,000 to $20,000. There’s a lot of volunteering work that went into this. It took about two years.”
Inmates at the Junee Correctional Centre spent more than 300 hours working on the car to bring it up to scratch.
Mr Brooks said it was incredible to see Jarrod’s reaction to the car.
Linda Roesler, Jarrod’s mother, said it was a special day and had been a long time coming.
“I remember when the car first came home and it was in boxes and it didn’t look like a car at all,” she said. “The team have done a wonderful job.”
Ms Roesler said she is grateful to everyone who was involved and when Jarrod was really sick, knowing the car was being fixed really helped.
“He won’t be hooning around,” she joked. “He is a very considerate kid and a bit cheeky.”
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