Staff photo / R. Michael Semple ABOVE: Sarra Mohn, owner of Jet Creative in Youngstown, left, and Deryck Toles, founder and CEO of Inspiring Minds, talk about the fundraising efforts that enabled Inspiring Minds to purchase a 2025 Chevrolet Express passenger van. IM, Ultium Cells and GM Cares enabled the purchase at Spitzer Chevrolet of Lordstown.

WARREN — Inspiring Minds is a youth nonprofit organization that provides student support for area underrepresented youth in grades 3 through 12.

When the school doors close, both at the end of the school day and at the beginning of summer vacation, IM is available with its enrichment and tutoring programs, many of which require transportation. The nonprofit has branches in Warren and Youngstown.

“Transportation has always been a barrier for our programming. We have a good partnership with the schools. They help with bussing. They also do a lot of things after school at the same time as we do. We use the vans to take trips, for college visits, for overnight weekend tours, and industry tours. We have two vans currently which can each hold 12 students, but we have about 200 kids in the Mahoning Valley,” said IM Program Administrator Jessica Winters.

IM’s transportation woes came to an end because of funds they helped raise with Ultium Cells and GM Cares. IM, GM Cares and Ultium Cells raised $25,000. GM Cares matched the additional $25,000 necessary to purchase a van.

“It is a unique partnership, where we can pursue support from General Motors through their foundation,” said Ultium Cells Vice President of Operations Tom Gallagher.

GM Cares is a General Motors employee-driven volunteerism program. The program identifies non-profits in need, and leads fundraising and volunteer efforts. Their impact is doubled thanks to GM’s corporate match.

GM Cares and Ultium Cells, in partnership with Spitzer Chevrolet of Lordstown, presented IM with a 2025 Chevy Express Passenger Van at the IM headquarters in Warren on Friday.

“GM Cares said we will give $25,000 toward the fundraising efforts toward the van. The other $25,000 came from Dollar for Doers, which is a GM Cares initiative that allows GM employees to volunteer for up to 15 hours in a year. So, we did two volunteer days here at IM to help generate those funds. There were community partners that gave, and we also did some fundraising at Ultium Cells as well that helped generate the $25,000,” said Ultium Cells plant planner Dominick Brown.

Sarra Mohn, owner of Jet Creative, a marketing company in Youngstown, is a volunteer at IM. She met with Brown.

“We started talking about community needs and the topic of transportation came up in the conversation. They were starting this pilot program,” Mohn said.

“It was so needed. We move around a lot. Transportation has always been a huge need in our organization. We are overwhelmed by the outpouring of support,” said Deryck Toles, IM founder and CEO.

“We will take more exposition trips and more college trips. The kids will really appreciate it,” said Damari Freeman, IM’s 6th-8th-grade coordinator.

The amount raised was more than necessary to purchase the van. The additional $4,360 raised will be used to help fund maintenance, insurance and decals they plan to purchase for the van.