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Staff photo by Dan Henry/Chattanooga Times Free Press - Mike Hartung, Teen Challenge building and grounds supervisor, speaks about the four years he spent converting a 1972 VW Bug into a hot dog stand complete with cooler and grill in an attempt to raise money for the Teen Challenge foundation. August 30, 2010.
Teen Challenge mostly draws support from people and churches that share the organization’s goal of helping men and women overcome life-threatening addictions.
But in the next three weeks, Teen Challenge participants plan to unmask a souped-up Volkswagen Super Beetle as another way to generate income.
“Hopefully this bug is going to reach a community that we haven’t been able to reach,” said Mike Hartung, the organization’s building grounds and maintenance supervisor. “We’re going to car shows, Bugapalooza, tailgate parties. We can take it to private parties or vacation Bible school.”
Hartung, the mastermind behind the nonprofit organization’s Beach Bug, brought the once-rusted yellow 1972 Volkswagen to the organization three years ago.
Hartung is among more than 20 supervisors and Teen Challenge students who worked on the car over the past three years.
The work allowed him to teach skills to students who had been incarcerated or who hadn’t held legitimate jobs, he said. And it allowed students who had training on cars and welding to show those skills.
As students transformed the car, they changed their own lives, said Mike Hartung’s wife, Zoe Hartung, who organizes fundraisers and special events for the nonprofit organization.
“We took an old yucky Volkswagen, and we have created it new,” she said. “That’s what we do here. We take broken vessels, and through the message of Jesus Christ we make people new again.”
Teen Challenge in Chattanooga houses 20 to 25 men and 12 women ages 18 and older. Each of them has battled a “life-controlling” addiction. For some it’s drugs and alcohol, and a few clients have had eating disorders, organizers said.
Several students said the transformation of the car shows how Teen Challenge has helped change their lives.
Silas Scoggins is one of the group’s oldest members. He didn’t start using drugs until age 56 after his wife of 40 years died. Now at 63, after being in Teen Challenge for six months, he said he can see the difference the organization has made in his life.
“I’ve been to other places for help and I felt like they were about the money, but here they treat you with love and respect,” Scoggins said.
The car, with a beach theme, has a number of innovations.
Mike Hartung pushed a wireless remote control button that caused the car’s top to rise about seven feet into the air. As the top ascended the windows opened, revealing a waist-high stainless steel grill with exhaust pipes protruding from the rear window.
The grill faces the back of the car, and there’s a built-in cooler in the dashboard area for storing drinks or frozen hot dogs. Under the hood, and disguised as surfboards on the roof, will be serving tables.
The Beetle has become a citywide project, Mike Hartung said, and a number of businesses donated parts and work.
He said he hopes to have the car appearing at events before the end of the year.
Yolanda Putman has been a reporter at the Times Free Press for 11 years. She covers housing and previously covered education and crime. Yolanda is a Chattanooga native who has a master’s degree in communication from the University of Tennessee and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Alabama State University. She previously worked at the Lima (Ohio) News. She enjoys running, reading and writing and is the mother of one son, Tyreese. She has also ...
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