Don't bunk, your Chevvy is waiting

LOS ANGELES: Dalip Singh Sethi, owner of Riverside''s Singh Chevrolet, has been honoured by Riverside County education officials for helping area residents by motivating students to excel in school.
He was among the five who received this year''s Outstanding Community Leader Award at the county''s annual Community Action Planning Workshop last month.
The others were honoured for their contribution towards either feeding the hungry or finding jobs for youngsters.
For the past two years Sethi has driven Riverside high school students to succeed by offering those with perfect attendance and good grades a chance to win a brand new Chevrolet Cavalier.
What sounds like a simple giveaway has in fact motivated students and in turn benefited the local schools. Since the 2001-2002 academic year, the first year Sethi began giving away free cars, attendance has risen dramatically and the high school districts are now receiving more dollars from the state than ever before.
As a result of the programme, “we''ve changed the attitudes in the students, in the schools, and in the parents,� Sethi said. “Without education, you can''t get ahead in life, and I have decided that this is my calling, to help out in education.�
Student attendance has always been a headache for school officials, and Sethi as a parent understood the problems first-hand. When he moved the family from Bakersfield not so long ago, his son was a straight-A student in high school. But soon after they settled in Riverside, the boy''s grades began slipping and he began falling in with the wrong crowd, Sethi said.
Seeking an answer, Sethi tried to meet with school officials but kept running into bureaucratic stonewalls. Frustrated, he pulled his son out of the school, moved him back to Bakersfield and re-enrolled him in his old high school.