I’ve just completed the 2021 48hrs of Tristate Subaru Enthusiasts Charity Drive for Make-A-Wish – and What a Blast!!!
This year’s event was a logistical challenge, due to the pandemic one I am very happy we were able to overcome. To help mitigate the dangers of the pandemic, we planned more scenic routes, and no event stops for the trip.
We had the massive wrap around balcony at Hotel Utica to social distance on, with masks, during our two driver’s meets. For our annual raffle, we used the power of the Internet (lol), and live streamed it.
But, most importantly, even in these challenging times, four dozen volunteers came together with over a dozen more supporting us online, to help us raise over $34,000 for Make-A-Wish (and helped me raise $3,350 of that total!). In the process, even though hugs and handshakes were out, we made some new friendships, and renewed some old friendships.
The start of the trip was at Subaru of America HQ, where Subaru, and Vermont SportsCar (home of Subaru Motorsports USA) brought out a bunch of cool cars for us to check out on our drive through. We can’t thank SoA enough for their ongoing support of this charity event, and for always figuring out how to go the extra mile to make the start of our events something special.
But, the awesome start of the trip didn’t end there!!! We were honored to not just meet Tom Doll, the President and CEO of Subaru of America, but to be personally served our breakfasts-to-go by him! Even though it was a cold blustery morning, Tom stood out in the cold, to meet everyone, say hi, and give us some food for the road! I’ve never met someone who’s so cool and down to earth as him – he makes it very easy to forget that he runs the car company we all know and love.
One of our long time volunteers, Dan Meola, Sales Manager at Liberty Subaru, proposed to another long time volunteer, Tia!!! Their first adventure together was a 48hrs event.
She said yes, and many of us wept with tears of joy with them. It was a beautiful start to our second full day.
We had a blast, driving for charity, in the snowstorms, on road and off-road. We toured various state parks, and the Finger Lakes National Forest, enjoying snow covered scenic roads and trails, and teaching & learning what our Subies could do in unplowed snow and dirt.
In all, we had an amazingly fun trip, for an amazing cause, and we all look forward to even bigger and better things for the years to come!
So, folks, it’s things like this I do for fun! It’s great being a part of such a worthwhile cause, making new friends, and having fun doing it!
