PARMA, Idaho — Two years ago, we brought you the story of fifteen-year-old Cole Medcoff of Parma. He was battling a brain tumor, during a pandemic. A really tough situation for this local teenager.
Cole has been in cancer treatment since 2019. His dad said he has been so brave through it all.
"The chemo really started to get to him," Josh Medcoff, Cole's dad, said. "I think it wears on him more than he likes to show. He stays strong for myself and for his mother and for the other little kids at the hospital, and for everybody around him. Just seeing the pain and everything he goes through with this, it's really tough. As a parent you want to fix everything, take care of it, take away the pain, kiss the boo-boo and you can't."
Months ago, before the pandemic hit, Cole fell in love with the idea of buying a classic car. He said bringing a car back to life just seemed like the perfect thing to spend his extra time on.
"I just kept looking on Craigslist, on Facebook, for something I could drive, I could work on," Cole said.
"We saw the car on the side of the road and Cole said, Dad, that's it, that's the car, I gotta have it! That's the car," Josh Medcoff said.
Cole spent $1,500 on the battered 1964 Mercury Monterey, knowing it needed a lot of TLC. Scott Reynolds, Josh Medcoff's best friend, wanted to help fix up the car for Cole. He works at Harold's Auto Body in Boise.
"What do you do when you find that out, that your best buddy's son has a brain tumor?" Reynolds told KTVB.
The problem was, getting the money to do it. Reynolds asked Cole if they could go to Make-A-Wish Idaho and ask for help. Cole refused.
"He said I'm not going to do it. He's not one to take charity, he's very selfless," Reynolds said. "He said every week, 'I go to chemo, and I see these little kids with tubes plugged in, and no hair, and they are throwing up and sick, and their families are suffering with them.' He told me, 'I don't need a car, those kids need to go to Disneyland, they need to go to Hawaii, they need their wish worse than I need a car.'"
So, Reynolds came up with an idea to bring in car shops from all over the Treasure Valley to help with restoring Cole's dream car.
"I got with my shop's owner, made some key calls to people in town, all the big players, and we had a meeting," Reynolds explained. "Can we do this? We all said, 'Yeah, we can do this for this kid.'"
They also started a GO FUND ME page to gather donations for the rebuild. Cole said he just could not believe it when he heard the news.
"My dad walks in and said, 'I talked to Scott, looks like he's picking up your car tomorrow,'" Cole recalled. "He said, 'They are going to do a full restoration on it.'"
Reynolds told KTVB COVID-19 slowed things down a lot, but he and his amazing group of volunteers stayed dedicated to the project.
"My guys around here have just been amazing, thousands of hours of sacrifice," said Reynolds. "How often do you get the chance to change someone's life, and this is life-changing? It's worth it for all of us. It's a lot of hours, a lot of time, a lot of money, but why not?"
"Maria Monterey the Legend, is what it's called," Reynolds said.
This month, in July of 2022, the car was finally finished!
"It took way longer than we wanted it to, but it's done," said Reynolds with a smile.
Reynolds delivered it to Cole last weekend!
"Oh it feels amazing, I absolutely missed her! It's been two years in the making and I really missed my baby and I appreciate having her back! I love all the amazing work everyone has put into it," Cole Medcoff said. "I feel that I owe it to myself, my family, and my hometown to appreciate this and drive it around as much as possible. I'm going to show it off for everyone that worked on it and supported it."
Cole said he is doing really well and his brain tumor is stable.
"I'm doing good, there's been no change or progression in my tumor. I finished chemo about a year and a half ago, so I'm no longer on chemo," Cole said.
This teenager is ready to start living, which starts with driving his dream car.
"I'm going to go to as many car shows as I can," Cole said proudly.
He said words can not express how grateful he is to Scott Reynolds and his crew.
"When you meet a kid that's as selfless as that, he deserves this. Thousands of labor hours went in to this car, and all of it was donated. My build team is just an amazing group of people. I have to thank everyone, worldwide, nationwide, Idaho-wide, that has donated and helped," said Reynolds. "For two plus years, this project has been my life. I am very honored, it has been my pleasure to do this!"
Reynolds says the Facebook Page for the car, and the Go Fund Me page are still up and running since the cost of rebuilding the car was a lot higher than they expected it to be. If you would like to help, any and all donations are welcome.
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