When Richard Bazzy heard Marc Fogel’s story, he felt a strong pull to connect. Fogel, a history teacher, had just returned to his Pittsburgh home after more than three years in a Russian penal colony.

The U.S. government, which determined that Fogel had been wrongfully detained, secured his release earlier this year. Now finally reunited with his family, Fogel was welcomed back in his local community with an outpouring of support. A local bakery even made cupcakes featuring Fogel’s image.

Bazzy, owner of Shults Ford and Shults Lincoln, in nearby Wexford, Pennsylvania, had his own idea.

“He’d be perfect for an F-150,” he said, thinking about Fogel’s love for the outdoors, including camping and hunting. Fogel’s family is also a Ford family with his son, who is studying mechanical engineering, driving an F-150.

For Bazzy, this impulse to help is connected to something bigger — the pride that runs through the entire Ford family.

“You see that pride in the factory,” he said. “That pride rolls down to us, the dealers. It’s not about any one of us, it’s about the Ford Blue Oval. And we represent it with passion.”

Bazzy worked with Ford corporate offices and organized a special experience for Fogel: visiting the Dearborn Truck Plant, part of the company’s historic Rouge facility where the new F-150 is assembled, and visiting with employees. Fogel was in awe of the complexity of truck assembly and how many people it takes to assemble an F-150.

Then came the incredible surprise Bazzy and the team had waiting: a beautiful new Ford F-150. A symbol of home, resilience, and the road ahead.

“My first new car in 63 years,” Fogel said. Taking it all in from the driver’s seat, he described it simply: “a beautiful truck that I am just so delighted to be an owner of. It’s just a fantastic, beautiful piece of machinery.”

Bazzy, who accompanied Fogel during his visit to Dearborn Truck Plant, reflected on the experience he, his team, and Ford helped create.

“As you get older,” he said, “you start to think about what’s it all about, what’s this for, what’s the point? And this is the point. This is the point. If we can do this and I can do it and 2,800 other Ford dealers can do it... and everybody can do a little bit. That’s what the point is.”

Amid the attention and support he’s received since returning, Fogel remains humble. He thinks of “all of these people who have been so kind to me.”

"I'm not the hero in here,” he said. “It's all of these people helping me that are the heroes.”

Corey Williams is plant manager of Dearborn Truck Plant.