A student from each high school in the Troup County School System will win a car this year, thanks to donations from area dealerships.

The first two cars were given out last week to students at LaGrange High School and Callaway High School. Troup High School will give its vehicle away on Friday.

The car giveaway idea was organized as an incentive to go hand-in-hand with the system’s Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports program. Basically, the school system wanted to encourage students to miss school, needed an incentive to deter behavioral problems while also rewarding good grades.

School administrators knew it would work, at least in theory. However, even LaGrange High Principal Alton White and Callaway Principal Jonathan Laney were surprised by the final results. Last year at LaGrange High, a total of five students would’ve qualified for the car giveaway. At Callaway High, student suspensions, failures and absences were down by 37 percent or more.

Between the two schools, more than 500 students qualified for a chance to win a car.

The vehicles were provided by LaGrange Toyota and AllPro Automotive. Troup’s will be donated by Kia of LaGrange.

Both LaGrange Toyota owner Michael Stogner and AllPro Automotive owner Cripper Silcox said they’d be interested in doing this again in the future, and that’s great news. All you had to do was talk to Callaway’s Oeisha Jenkins or LaGrange’s Jennifer Espinoza to see what it meant to them to win the car.

Not only is the vehicle giveaway encouraging students to attend school, but it’s also changing lives, even if students don’t win.

We hope it’ll return next year, when we’re sure students will be even more excited about their chance to win. After all, seeing is believing, and hundreds of students watched a classmate win a vehicle last week. Another 1,000 or so will do the same this week.

We’re sure returning students will spend much of the summer talking about what it would mean to win a brand-new car.