Exhaust Systems San Diego

Saab story: Payoff coming for Memorial grad's summer act of charity

While a lot of students work during summer vacation, earning money and learning real-world responsibilities, few work with the purpose of Sebastian Gupta.

The 2011 Memorial High School graduate, who’ll begin studying mechanical engineering this fall at the University of San Diego, spent last summer rebuilding a clunker automobile he bought at auction, one that had to be towed to the shop, into a factory-new, road-ready machine.

And he did it for charity.

He’ll soon put the fully restored 2000 Saab 9-5 up for auction on e-Bay, with all proceeds going to the Houston Area Women’s Center, and that thrills everyone involved.

“I’m just blown away by the full dimension of this story,” said Kelly Boros, director of communications at HAWC. “In my nine-and-a-half years at the center, this is the story that’s moved me the most.”

“I did think about keeping (the car),” said Sebastian Gupta, “but it’s going to a good cause.”

“He’s our only child,” said Yohanne Gupta, Sebastian’s father. “Linda (Sebastian’s mother) and I believe that part of our responsibility as parents is to instill service into our son.”

The Guptas, who live in Bunker Hill Village, started instilling that notion of service early.

Sebastian recalls that at his sixth or seventh birthday party, he had his friends bring cans of food rather than presents, food that he donated to the Fairhaven UMC pantry.

“The Memorial area is so affluent, but only a few miles away people struggle just to put food on the table,” he said.

Fast forward to the summer of 2010, when Sebastian was approached by his father about his summer plans.

Yohanne Gupta wanted Sebastian to do something to further his interest in engineering and business.

They hit upon the idea of rebuilding an old car — “Sebastian has always been a tinkerer,” says Yohanne — and added the altruistic element at the same time.

Linda Gupta has long supported the Houston Area Women’s Center, silently, she says. “We’re private (as a family),” she said. “We’re not out in the forefront.”

But his mother’s interest in the center extended to Sebastian, who made it his cause as well.

Through some of his father’s contacts, Sebastian found the car at an auction, paying $1,400 for a car that didn’t run and needed extensive clean-up inside.

“Nobody else even bid on it,” he said.

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