VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Hitting the road is only getting more expensive. According to AAA, 64 million American drivers would be unable to pay for unexpected car repairs without going into debt. That is one in three drivers.

A Volusia County man is working to tackle the problem through his new nonprofit called Fix It Forward.

You can usually find Ed Rosa with a tool in his hand.

“I have always worked on my cars. I have always liked turning wrenches, as they say,” Rosa said.

After retiring from the Army in 2019 and moving to Florida, he expected to spend his time on the golf course, but found a different calling.

“I have some PTSD from my time in combat in the military. This helps me clear my mind. This helps me feel a lot better than any medication," Rosa said. "Helping people out, that is why I do it.”

He started out helping friends and family with their car repairs until he saw a greater problem.

“I would fix them for free — my friends' and my wife’s friends' — and I saw the need," Rosa said. "The amount of people that just couldn’t afford to fix their cars, and I started doing it out of my own pocket, buying the parts, volunteering to do the labor and realized that it was a much bigger problem than I could handle just with my personal finances, so I decided to open a nonprofit.”

That was two months ago. Now, he travels around Central Florida helping those in need with their car troubles.

In one case, he worked on the car of a family in Minneola who ran over some fencing that fell off a truck in front of their vehicle.

“Whatever she drove over, the fencing, missed the oil pan, but it hit the transmission housing, and it did separate the transmission housing. It lost all the fluid," Rosa said. "This is another one of those unexpected that can really impact a family’s financial, and their status of this being the only car for the family, it is definitely a hardship for them."

Rosa donates his time and tools and uses all the donations to buy parts to fix the cars. He takes applications online, focusing on those who need his help the most, like the homeless, disabled vets and older adults. So far, the response has been overwhelming. 

“I just started with the nonprofit, but I have been busy the whole time," he said. "I am up to 16 cars that I have helped in the last three weeks, and I have about 27 that are on the waiting list, waiting for me to have the time and the money to purchase parts.” 

He takes mechanics classes in the morning and then works on multiple cars a day. He said he hopes to help keep people from making tough decisions.

“People don’t have a choice. It’s either fix your car, or pay your rent. And they drive their cars until the wheels fall off literally, and there is nothing they can do because they have to feed their families," Rosa said. "They have to pay for a roof over their heads, so it affects everybody. It affects everybody on the road, and if we can get one car to be safe on the road, that makes everybody that much safer.”

He does run into instances, like in this case, where he can’t get the car up and running on his own.

“So, what happens now is I will try to resource, try to find a mechanic that would be willing to volunteer their time to fix the transmission and see if we at the nonprofit Fix It Forward can cover it so we can get this family on the road,” Rosa said.

In the meantime, Rosa continues to expand his skills and his network, hoping one day to fix any problem he encounters.

“That’s what I want to be able to do in the future and have a shop and have full mechanics working and helping people out," Rosa said. "Hopefully, that will come in due time.”

If you are eligible and need help from Fix It Forward, fill out an application here. If you would like to help support Rosa’s mission, you can contact him here.