Charity events to raise awareness and raise money for worthy causes are pretty common. Silent auctions and bake sales are great, but this past Sunday May 26th, the automotive community stepped up with a unique event focused on those who like to go fast.
The aptly named Gearheads Giving Back fundraiser was organized by Demaras Racing in partnership with Can-Jam Motorsports, the CSCS Series and C17 Media in support of SickKids Hospital.
The Canadian Sport Compact Series was hosting Round 1 of its annual drift / drag / time attack series at historic Mosport this weekend, and Daniel Demaras was invited to display his No. 12 Can-Jam Motorsports Formula 1200 race car.
Plenty of spectators checked out the open-wheel car, and everyone was welcome to squeeze into the narrow cockpit for a snapshot. For those interested in actually driving the Formula 1200 car, Daniel Demaras was raffling off a ‘thrill ride’ in his car. For $20 a ticket, all donors were entered into a promotional draw, with the Grand Prize winner getting to jump into the driver’s seat of the No. 12 Can-Jam Motorsports Formula 1200 car in October, plus two tickets to the next F1200 race (the Vintage Grand Prix) in June.
The interesting thing about the fundraiser was how many people shared their personal experiences with SickKids Hospital. Complete strangers opened their wallets and their hearts while sharing stories of the little miracles that the doctors and nurses at SickKids performed. It was quite amazing to see how many lives the great institution has touched. Even a gentleman named Zahir working at Home Depot handed over a $20 bill from his wallet when he heard the generator Demaras was renting was part of a SickKids fundraiser.
When all the competitions was wrapped up, Daniel Demaras and Chris Demaras were invited on the CSCS stage to tell a little about the charity initiative, then roll the brass drum and randomly select the grand prize winner. The enthusiastic winner was Troy Leggett from SNAP FAB custom fabrication services, a vendor at the big CSCS event.
Troy is a drag racer who knows how to operate an H-pattern gearbox, thank goodness! When buying his ticket, Troy even joked that with his racecar needing so much repair this summer, his only chance of getting out on track was the Gearheads Giving Back draw. From his lips to the racing gods’ ears!
Through the combined efforts of Duane at Can-Jam, Kevin at CSCS, Chris at C17 plus the Demaras Racing team, much money was collected for SickKids and one worthy winner will get to experience the thrill of an open-wheel race car. That’s the ‘car community‘ at it’s finest.
I was looking forward to hearing how it went. Sounds like a success! Do you sell those hats with your logo? Would be a fun father’s day gift for my husband.
Susan, I’ve got to say I was a little disappointed in the donations (thought we would collect double the amount). But I think that NEXT fundraiser in a couple weeks, we will take the race car out on track. Once people see it in action, they’ll buy those raffle tickets.
.
The hat! Did you get a look at the sparkles on that thing? Probably 8 or 9 years ago, we made T-shirts and hats for friends , family and sponsors. That hat went to my little niece and she BE-DAZZLED it!
Hope the next one does better!
Love the hat!!