The annual Sunshine Kids cruise is WAAAAAAY short of cars this year and I thought I'd reach out to the Viper community to see if I could scrounge up a few more guys. The low-down is this:
Every year, Showcars for Kids puts on an annual event called the Sunshine Kids. Children of all ages, from toddlers to teenagers, who have been battling or who are battling cancer participate. Basically the sponsors bus the kids over to San Marcos and SURPRISE! There are a whole bunch of exotic cars waiting there for them to ride in! They file off the bus one-by-one and pick their respective rides, then we get a police escort from San Marcos to the capital with NO other cars on the street except for us, including I35. The police shut down frontage roads, on-ramps and off-ramps and give these kids the VIP treatment. It's a blast!
Now, the bad news. It's Wednesday, June 11th. We're meeting in south Austin at 7am or in San Marcos at 8am. And they only have 20 cars signed up to take 34 kids.
I know it's short notice, but I just got an email from the event coordinator. If any Austin guys can make it out, or if any Houston, Dallas or San Antonio guys can take some time off, these kids would be eternally grateful.
If you have questions or want to sign up, contact Michael Marr at showcars@showcars4kids.com. He'll need your full name, year, make, model and license plate of your car for you to drive.
I can't think of a better excuse to call in sick this week; make a kid's day, drive your Viper AND get a 20-mile police escort to the Capital?! Please consider coming out, guys; thanks!
I would be there, as I have in many past years. But my tranny is out ready for a new clutch. I'm waiting on my flywheel to come in and it won't be here till the 13th. For those of you that do attend, it's one of the best cruises I frequent and for a wonderful cause.
Everyone pulled through! Not only did we have enough cars for every kid, but we had enough for the staff too and STILL had some left over! We had 4 GTSs, an SRT droptop and 2 RTs make it out, along with a few GT3s, a 360, a 348, a 550, a Gallardo, a Continental GT, a Prowler, a Ford GT and a handful of other exotics and American muscle!
Thanks to everyone that helped pull together participants at the last minute!
Everyone pulled through! Not only did we have enough cars for every kid, but we had enough for the staff too and STILL had some left over! We had 4 GTSs, an SRT droptop and 2 RTs make it out, along with a few GT3s, a 360, a 348, a 550, a Gallardo, a Continental GT, a Prowler, a Ford GT and a handful of other exotics and American muscle!
Thanks to everyone that helped pull together participants at the last minute!
Ya, I heard HCD might have helped out a bit on this one...
Everyone pulled through! Not only did we have enough cars for every kid, but we had enough for the staff too and STILL had some left over! We had 4 GTSs, an SRT droptop and 2 RTs make it out, along with a few GT3s, a 360, a 348, a 550, a Gallardo, a Continental GT, a Prowler, a Ford GT and a handful of other exotics and American muscle!
Thanks to everyone that helped pull together participants at the last minute!
First, thanks for doing this! Second, thanks to the folks that brought their cars! Lastly third, the Prowler as an exotic
HCD and the VCA came through again to keep this event alive...4 years running now. Postings on several different exotic car boards, emails to over 700 folks...I (we) always pull out the stops to build awareness and this year was no acception. Just with my efforts alone I had over 30 cars want to sign up in 24 hours...and had to turn folks away due to overwhelming logistics.
As the guy who normally generates the awareness and trys to pull the masses together on events like this, I would just like to add...thanks to everyone who makes this event and other events like it possible. I can invite as many people as I can...but it's the ones who actually show up that make the events possible. So thank you to all!
Just an FYI, we do events like this at least 3 times a year...just email me if you are interested in joining the mailing list.
Thanks again to those who were able to show up for this event!
It was fun and remember this is all for the kids , not us or our cars. Ace,(GT3) and Marc,(SRT 10) , pulled out their checkbooks along with their cars.
jasontiff did a killer job of rounding up some Vipers at the last minute.
M.
The young man riding navigator with me was Michael from Bowling Green, Kentucky. He is fighting sarcoma and it's taken much of the muscle in the back of his right leg. On the way to the Blockbuster parking lot, I was worried about some detonation I was noticing. After the ride to the Capitol with Michael...I was thinking it was OK. Michael got a real kick out of the whole police escort and asked me I thought we had more motorpolice than the President of the United States. Hope I can do it again.
I saw you guys leaving San marcos yesterday and got info from someone videoing on the overpass. If you ever need I would be willing to help... brad.lind@gsginet.com
The kids were able to choose which car they wanted to ride in on the cruise.
We paraded from San Marcos (south of Austin) to downtown Austin, down Congress Street and ending at the Capitol.
They partially shut down the highways on the route and we had a full police escort.
Many people were perched on overpasses and on the side of the road taking video and pictures while waving to the kids.
Many volunteers worked to put this together as well as the local police and fire department.
I was very fortunate to be able to be a part of this... it was uplifting to see so many work for a good cause.
My passenger was a young girl from New York who was diagnosed with leukemia when she was 13...shortly after her Uncle died of cancer that same year.
She missed out on her entire freshman year in high school but is now in remission.
She just graduated high school and works while waiting for college to begin.
She extremely pleasant to spend time with.
It was great to hear her speak so optimistically of her future and with such strong anticipation of starting college and a career.
News article:
There is a video in the top right corner of the page and my car is shown briefly near the end of the video.
For those of you that do attend, it's one of the best cruises I frequent and for a wonderful cause.
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