Manassas Journal Messenger | Restaurant owner to raise money for scholarships

Mild-mannered restaurant owner Tim Bauchman, disguised as Ski Man, will battle 16 miles of the mighty Potomac River to raise a scholarship for a lucky Potomac High School student.

Bauchman, the owner of Tim’s Rivershore Restaurant, will ski downriver Saturday morning in memory of Joe Melice, a well-known Woodbridge auto mechanic who recently died of a heart attack, said Bauchman’s ex-wife Lori Bauchman Moore. Melice was 47, Moore said.

Melice owned an auto repair shop on Highams Court in Belmont Bay where he employed area youngsters over the years, including Moore’s current husband, Don Moore.

“Don wouldn’t be in business today if it wasn’t for Joe,” said Moore, co-owner with her husband of Mechanix Auto Repair in Featherstone Industrial Park.

“Joe Melice was a local mechanic of something like 30 years.” she said.

“If Don had a problem with a car the first person he would call was Joe,” she said.

Bauchman, ever the champion of those in need, will ask local businesses to contribute to a scholarship in Melice’s name.

“He’s been whipping it up down at his place,” Moore said of Bauchman, who has been rallying his merry band of river rats to the scholarship cause.

“We thought we’d all pool our resources and do this for him,” Moore said of Melice.

“After he died,” Moore said, “we found out exactly how much volunteering he did over at Potomac High School.”

“He did so much over at the high school that we thought this would be an awesome thing to do for his memory — to send a kid to trade school with this scholarship,” Moore said.

Bauchman plans to leave Tim’s Rivershore on Cherry Hill Road in Dumfries in time to arrive in time for lunch at his other restaurant, Tim’s II, in Fairview Beach, Moore said.

“He’s going to have breakfast at Tim’s and then we’ll have lunch down at Tim’s II,” Moore said.

Those who can’t find the time to attend Ski Man’s departure Saturday between 9 and 10 a.m, behind a 29-foot, twin 454 Baja, can send donations to Mechanix Auto Repair, 1328 Profit Court, Woodbridge, Moore said.

Staff writer Keith Walker can be reached at (703) 878-8063.