Neal Plymate recently received an unexpected call from Main Auto Repair.

Owners Brent and Angie Ward had just read about the homeless Manteca Unified student in The Bulletin and wanted to donate their services.

In particular, they had the resources to help the 18-year-old Manteca High senior with his 2000 GEO Metro.

The vehicle needed work in order to pass smog necessary for registration. Plymate, for the most part, said the car would provide transportation for steady part-time employment not to mention a place to call home in French Camp.

“If it were one of our kids, we would want to be there to help out,” said Angie Ward, who has two sons, ages 22 and 20.

Both were impressed during their meeting with Plymate.

“He’s very sincere and very humble,” Angie said.

Brent, meanwhile, did a once over with the vehicle which, for starters, had a bad sparkplug wire.

“He was riding on three (out of four) cylinders,” he said.

Main Auto not only took care of the engine work but also the struts, according to Plymate.

“They really went above and beyond,” he said.

Plymate was scheduled for a vehicle smog this past weekend. He was looking forward to do that along with his registration.

When contacted on Friday afternoon, Plymate was en route to Stockton for a job interview at an import / export business.

He’s one of about 400 homeless students in MUSD, according to recent figures provided by the district’s Health Services.

About 1.2 million homeless students were reported in U.S. public schools last year based on data from the National Center for Homeless Education. A study on this was funded by the U.S. Department of Education.