SJ mechanics help Argentine pilgrims see pope
HAINESPORT Six people. Buenos Aires to Philadelphia. Six months. Thousands of miles.
One Volkswagen bus.
That’s the journey undertaken by the Walker family — father Catire, mother Noel Zemborain and their four children — in the hopes of seeing Pope Francis in Philadelphia.
A journey that saw a detour to South Jersey, after the Walkers piled into the VW bus in March and began driving north, using donations from an Indiegogo page and their own savings, sleeping at times in the van and at times in the homes of host families along the way. The family blogs about their journey and has been profiled by Huffington Post, CNN, Washington Post, Fox News and NBC News.
When the Walkers’ bus, vintage 1980 and manufactured outside the U.S., broke down along a particularly dangerous stretch of Interstate 95 in Delaware, it set in motion a multistate reaction that stretched from Virginia to Pennsylvania and, finally, to the Hainesport shop of Nikki and Steven Toughill.
“We heard about it because the VW community is very tight-knit,” Nikki said. Steven saw posts from fellow VW enthusiast Jamie Orr on social media Sunday night, desperately asking for help, parts, anything, as he raced to Delaware in his Doka — a truck/van hybrid once made by VW — to rescue the stranded Walkers.
“It’s a phenomenal story,” she said.
Orr heard about the family through a friend at Volkswagen’s U.S. headquarters in Herndon, Virginia, Rico Abramzon, a native of Argentina who’d been following the family’s progress through their online posts and news sites from his homeland.
After contacting Orr and asking how he might help, Steven Toughill told Orr to bring the bus to his shop, Die Werkstatt, closer to Philadelphia than Orr’s Pottstown, Pennsylvania, shop.
With donated parts from a vendor in Edison and Volkswagen of America, Toughill has been working on the bus, hoping to get it in shape, not only to help the family get to Philadelphia, but indeed, all the way back to Argentina.
“They are very inspiring people,” Steven Toughill said of the Walkers. “They don’t care about material things. It was very refreshing to hear them tell their story.”
Abramzon agreed. “What struck me about this family is that I was shocked to hear how much they emphasize family,” he said. “It’s not about religion for them, though that’s the reason for the trip. For them, it’s about family, about how a family comes together.”
Orr tried to help the Walkers get back on the road in Delaware, but found the side of a major interstate wasn’t a good place for that.
“I realized pretty quickly I needed to get them off the road, to safety, and then get the bus to a shop,” he said.
“I took them to Wawa and tried to explain to them why Philly and Jersey love (Wawa) so much,” he laughed.
The Scotland native, who specializes in finding rare, hard-to-find cars and parts, said the Walkers’ VW presented some challenges.
“I have a very similar bus to theirs. The production ended in the U.S. in 1979; theirs is a 1980 and was almost certainly made in Brazil, which also stopped making them within the last five years or so. Mexico stopped making them in the early 2000s.
“Their bus is pretty unique in the U.S.A.”
The Toughills, both Burlington City natives who live in Chesterfield, knew their shop was particularly right for this job.
“I’ve worked on VWs my entire life,” said Steven Toughill. Asked why he was drawn to the brand, he thought a moment, then said, “I don’t know … the history, maybe? There are certain questions you never really know the answer to. It’s like asking a Ford man why he’s a Ford man.”
He wasn’t as hesitant when asked about the Walkers, however.
“They all know that family is important,” he said. Catire Walker and his oldest daughter had visited the shop, he said, and it was clear they are close. Cala, 13, wrote a simple note on a whiteboard at the shop: "Thanks!! Walkers" with a little heart, something Nikki Toughill hadn't noticed until her husband pointed to it Wednesday morning.
“They know what matters, what really matters, is keeping the family together no matter what,” he said.
For the longtime mechanic, that made the job, and the donated time, labor and parts, worth it.
“It’s not about the car; it’s about the people who drive it,” he said.
Phaedra Trethan: (856) 486-2417; ptrethan@gannettnj.com