Staff Profile
Melissa Hay
Melissa Hay
NAMGAR Marketing & Communications Manager
I am Melissa Hay, the new NAMGAR Marketing & Communications Manager, and would like to introduce myself to you. I’ll start with a little history. I was born in Florida, but moved to South Texas at a young age. The beach is still my favorite place to vacation – it’s in my blood. I grew up in small town Texas wearing boots and jeans and riding horses every weekend to the local Dairy Queen for parfaits or through my neighbors’ ranches for brush country adventures. On somewhat of a whim, I left this great state for Loyola University in New Orleans. Although the extracurricular activities were most entertaining, I transferred from Loyola to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in pursuit of a little time at Oak Ridge National Lab and a Physics degree. Once achieved, I moved back to Texas and have been toiling away in the Dallas area ever since. Most of my professional career has been in Information Technology. Please don’t ask me to fix your PC though; I know just enough to be dangerous! I recently moved out of IT and am now a project manager supporting the business teams at a local utility company. I am a single mom with two small-to-medium sized children that keep me busy and feeling happy to be alive. My mom, sis and nephew live close to me (by Texan standards). I enjoy reading, working in the yard, lazy days by the pool, and using air tools, hydraulic presses, media blasters and the like…normal stuff for a girl my age.
Why am I an MGA fan? I suppose you will understand me when I say I am working on a restoration project that has been going on for fifteen years. Once you acquire one of these precious little cars, you basically commit to working on it, improving it, or just managing the basic maintenance on it for…well, forever. I was first introduced to my car when I was fifteen. I don’t remember paying much attention to it, though, until it was offered as a daily driver by my wonderful parents. What parent wouldn’t give their sixteen-year-old girl an extremely safe and reliable car such as the MGA? I do remember being stranded on the side of the road a few times just hoping my parents would notice me on their way home from work. They always did. I think that’s when the mystery started for me – the mystery of how to keep the car running…safely.
Originally the car was a gift to my mother from her loving husband for Mother’s Day. This 1960 MGA was found in a pasture in North Texas and purchased for a mere $500.00 in 1985. It’s been in my family ever since and even though I say it’s mine, it really belongs to my mother. I drove the car while in high school and was nicknamed “Motorcar” – “Mo” for short. After being utilized and maintained by family members, the car sat idle for several years and was repurposed by a rodent family and a few wasps until I rescued it in 2003. I carted it around for about six years before I finally found the confidence (and my restoration coach – George) to restore it, which I am doing now ad nauseam.
Why am I a NAMGAR volunteer? This is my first opportunity to give back to the people who have enabled me to revisit mechanics (as in the study of motion, not grease monkeys) in a very practical way. I love problem solving and this restoration project is retraining me to incorporate science in a creative way to make-work easy. Several tasks I would never have taken on myself are not so daunting nowadays. Besides, the bottom line is that I love my car. I am quite excited about my new role for NAMGAR as the Marketing & Communications Manager! I will do my best to serve the organization as long as you will have me!