NEWBERRY — Seventeen-year-old Micah Wooten was in for the surprise of his life when his family and multiple local businesses joined forces to present him with his remodeled 1988 F150 four wheel drive on Friday.
In a turn of events, according to his father Matt Wooten, the plan was to present the truck during a drop-in celebration held Sunday — the family presented the truck on Friday instead. This was due to Micah Wooten undergoing a minor surgery at Beaufort Memorial Hospital from an injury he sustained while training. His father said his son should make a full recovery.
This surgery, however, caused Wooten to miss his graduation ceremony in Parris Island, South Carolina — but no ceremony could compare to what Wooten would see coming out of the operating room.
“Doctors and nurses gathered in the halls when he emerged post-op. They met him with the Marine Corps hymn — heck of a heartfelt moment. He was groggy, but smiling,” Matt Wooten said. “He was disheartened because he could not be at the ceremony. He recognized what was happening and said that moment was irreplaceable.”
Wooten has had the truck for about five months and purchased the truck as a fixer-upper. However, before Micah Wooten’s graduation, his father was figuring out how to go about remodeling the truck. He said the ball was rolling after he approached a local business provider.
“Went to a local business provider, Rick Strubeck from Newberry Paint and Body, and I told him ‘we’ve got a recruit who has decided to join the Marine Corps., how much would it be to get this truck fixed up?’ We had a short conversation about who it was and it happened to be my son Micah James,” Wooten said. “He said he knew him from his employment at a local hardware store and thought the kid was really straight-laced. He thought about it a second and said ‘I’m not going to charge you anything.’”
When it came to the repairs that needed to be made, Matt Wooten said aside from dents and paint, the largest portion was the body.
While Micah Wooten was away, the process to remodel the truck took about six weeks to complete.
“In fact all of these contributors knew going in there was a certain risk inherent to this process,” Matt Wooten said. “The Marine Corps is very difficult throughout the recruitment and boot camp process — there’s always the chance that you might not make it so their investment was really based on their knowing our family, knowing Micah and his character and willing to extend themselves and the resources and costs associated with this.”
According to Matt Wooten, there’s a 50 percent fallout rate for boot camp — so sometimes if 100 join maybe 50 will make it through the camp.
The moment when Micah Wooten saw his remodeled truck is a moment he will never forget.
“Getting home and stepping out of my family’s vehicle and seeing my truck it just blew me away — of all the stuff that had been done to it the paint job, wheels, everything, it was so beautiful it just took my breath away,” he said.
Knowing multiple businesses contributed to remodeling his truck was also a special moment for Micah Wooten.
“It was a really amazing feeling when my family told me all the people that contributed because, like my father said before, I knew most of them from a job I had previously and just knowing they were all willing to put in their time and to donate themselves to work on the truck for me was a very heartwarming feeling,” he said.
With his truck looking good as new, Micah Wooten said he will “most definitely will keep it very clean and take good care of it.”
Micah Wooten also expressed his thanks for his family, friends and the following businesses who played a role in remodeling his truck: Livingston’s on Main, Audio Advantage, Newberry Paint and Auto, NAPA, Newberry Tire and Auto, Ringer Glass, A to Z Transmissions, Kenny’s Garage and Rick’s Newberry Paint and Body Shop.
