March 18, 2021 | By Chasity Maynard
Cleaning cars offers Shine and his employees a fresh start
Suds slosh and engines rumble under a blue carport behind a gas station in East Gainesville every weekday and most weekends. It’s a place for change.
Aptly named Stayfree, Gregory McDonald’s establishment is more than just a car wash. The awning and hot pavement are the physical manifestations of the Stayfree movement.
Most people know McDonald by his serendipitous nickname, Shine. His car wash on Waldo Road offers a place to work for people struggling to find a job because of criminal records or troubled pasts.
Gregory McDonald, 44, walks in front of his carwash, Stayfree, on Oct. 27, 2021, in Gainesville, Fla. McDonald, who goes by Shine, owns the carwash behind a gas station on Waldo Road in East Gainesville.
Roderick Cunningham leans in to watch Shine wash a car on Oct. 5, 2021.
Workers and family wear Stayfree T-shirts and barbeque at the edge of the pavement. They share their food for free with anyone who walks by, customer or not. The movement creates a community of people with the same goals.
Shine’s past fuels his generosity. He had been locked up in prison five times for drug possession and selling cocaine and completed the terms of his last parole in 2015. He realized then that he was done. But leaving “the streets” was difficult.
He struggled to transition out of crime, and receiving repeated job rejections stung. It was tempting to return to a lifestyle he knew could be lucrative, especially when he has nine children. He tried day labor, laminating boats, deep frying food and starting a lawn service business. But finally, the car wash he opened in 2019 stuck.
Stayfree isn’t just for former inmates, though.
“Everyone found their own meanings for Stayfree,” Shine says. “Stay free from drugs, stay free from alcohol. I don’t want it to just mean to stay free from jail.”
Shine’s family and his girlfriend, Tonya Starling, help in building his movement. Starling helps Shine manage the paperwork, insurance and payroll at the car wash.
“She is really my motivation and drive,” he says.
Water droplets drip as Cunningham wrings out a rag at the carwash on Oct. 27, 2021. Stayfree is often a jumping-off point for workers, so many of Shine’s employees are temporary. The size of his team varies. Some days just Cunningham and Shine are there to run the business.
Sherry McCrae, Shine’s aunt, lives in town and regularly visits the car wash and charity events Stayfree supports. McCrae says that even after working as a police officer for 25 years, she didn’t understand why Shine couldn’t find a job after he was released from prison. His movement made her realize that having a criminal record forever changes your life.
“When you are a convicted felon, it is a lifetime sentence,” she says.
Shine is determined to show the children in his community that there is a different path to success and money. He doesn’t want them to struggle.
Shine’s daughters Asiya and Ashini McDonald visit him at the carwash on Oct. 13, 2021. He looks down at Asiya as she hugs him. He wears a hat embroidered with his children’s names.
Shine wipes his face under the carport on Oct. 5, 2021. His aunt, Sherry McCrae, can be seen through a car window Cunningham is cleaning. Shine’s family and friends like to drop by the business. They often wear Stayfree shirts like McCrae’s.
Stayfree participates in events to support children like Christmas toy drives and back-to-school backpack giveaways. Shine works with some of his reformed friends to mentor children, teaching them how to work at the car wash, in carpentry and in landscaping. He hopes his movement will carry forward to the next generation. He hopes its followers will stay free.
Cunningham smokes a cigarette as he walks away from the Stayfree storage room while Shine locks the doors, wrapping up the day on Oct. 13, 2021.
Shine slings his backpack on his shoulder as he leaves the Gainesville carwash for the evening on Oct. 27, 2021, heading to the motorized bike he often rides around the carwash and uses to travel to and from work. After having multiple knee surgeries, the bike makes it easier for Shine to move.