URGENT!! Help Needed in Central Texas!!!

[jasontiff]

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!

[viper spray]

I just signed up.

[Evil]

Are they taking donations? I didn't see a link on the website.

[DC3843]

check with the Ferrari dealer in San Antonio. A couple of years ago a bunch of private ferrari owners were doing it, they may have their names. Also, the surgeon that repaired my hamstring has about 6 ferrari's, I'll see if I can't get him to sign up.

[jasontiff]

Thanks, guys! This entails the information I have, from the last email sent out by the events organizer, Michael Marr:

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

We are back down to only about 20 cars confirmed on the list. There are a confirmed 34 kids scheduled to be here for the event. So if you know of anyone who has a car please get them on board with us!!

Ok now for the meeting locations and schedule for the day.

Meeting location 1

William Cannon at IH-35 in the Blockbuster Parking lot (South West corner of intersection)

Meeting Time: 7:15 am

Drivers Meeting: 7:30 am, meeting on safety and rules for the cruise with kids in cars

Depart Time: 7:45 am SHARP heading to San Marcos



Meeting Location 2

San Marcos Activity Center 501 E. Hopkins, San Marcos, Texas 78666, Activity Center

Meeting Time: 8:15 am Parking in back in parking area between Activity Center and City Library

Drivers Meeting: 8:30am, meeting on safety and rules for the cruise with kids in cars

8:40 to 9:00 am Loading of kids and passing out of shirts to Kids and drivers (PLEASE STAY BY YOUR VEHICLE AT ALL TIMES!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Depart Time: 9:00 am, PLOICE ESCORT up IH-35 to Slaughter Lane to Congress. Up Congress through downtown straight into the State Capitol.

Now there are a few changes this year due to loss of sponsors for the Sunshine Kids Org. Big change is NO lunch at Capitol

Once at the capitol we will let the kids out and then leave the grounds to a parking garage B. (I will have a map on Wednesday) At the parking garage you must park all the way on the top floor and we will have a bus drive you back to the capitol if you want to stay for a tour of the Capitol.

There will be two tours set up for kids and you if you chose to stay. (Staying is not required) Tours should be over by Noon. After the tours the kids are put on their bus and taken back to San Marcos for lunch at Luby’s Cafeteria. Everyone is invited and encouraged to come have lunch with the kids, however it is at your own expense (sorry).

I also want to thank everyone for stepping up, taking the day off and wanting to spend some time with these needy kids. I also want to let you know who all our sponsors are for our shirts.

Lexus of Austin, Kershner Trading Group and Harris Road (H2R) are REPEAT Sponsors

Kaleidacare Management Solutions is a new sponsor

And SPECIAL THANKS TO Turtle and Naomi Young who donated $300.00 and Murray Francois who donated $100.00.

Now you all know there is no charge for this event and we have no interest in ever charging for this event. It is a good thing we are doing for these kids. Giving them a day of fun in the middle of all they under go with health, doctors and hospital visits. However I would like to mention that without the organization Sunshine Kids itself the event would not happen. With this in mind if anyone would like to donate to the sunshine kids I will be excepting monetary donations that morning that 100% of will be given to the Sunshine Kids, the same day. If you want to make a donation get with me and I will take cash or checks. Please make checks payable to Sunshine Kids. Also Sunshine Kids is a non-profit organization and is a reportable tax deduction.

If anyone has any questions please contact me directly.

Also if you don’t mind I need all participants to reconfirm they will be attending with their FULL NAME, VEHICLE INFORMATION i.e. MAKE, MODEL, COLOR AND LICENSE PLATE NUMBER.

THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR HELP

[jasontiff]

Originally Posted by Evil

Are they taking donations? I didn't see a link on the website.

It sounds like you can send a check to them but they're not set up to take online donations.

[viper spray]

I donate to these charities every year at our vintage motorcycle events.
Childhood cancer organizations are my favorite charities and basically the only charities that I donate to.


Any Baby Can - Candlelighters
and
Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation


This event is for:

The Sunshine Kids

[getbit]

Leaving for the cruise in an hour.
Worthwhile event.

[jasontiff]

Just an update:

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!

[getbit]

Here is the article about the cruise.

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.

Children with cancer trade treatment for fun in Austin

I think they will be posting more videos and pics on the following websites soon as well.

SHOWCARS 4 KIDS
The Sunshine Kids