Viper folks making a dream come true!

[phiebert]

To make a long story short, the Western Canada region is driving 6 of our Vipers loaded with celebrities and one very special guest in this weekends parade lap just before the start of the Vancouver Indy CART series race. The very special guest is a child from the Children's Wish Foundation. CWF makes dreams come true for terminally ill children. We were able to convince DaimlerChrysler and Molson to add one more Viper to the parade lap and take along this special child. I'm sure it will be a dream come true for him. Apparently he is a big racing fan and is going to the Indy for the first time. Not only is he going to be there, but he is going to be the passenger in one of six cars where the other five are loaded with famous actors, sports people, etc. And he is going to be seen on TV coverage by over 42 million people in 195 countries! I'm very proud of our club for making this happen and just thought I would share it with all of you.

Also a big thanks to Dodge and Pentamark marketing for getting the Viper Club in the parade lap, getting us premium Dodge Corner seats for the whole weekend, secured parking at the Indy in the Viper Corral, and hats, etc. We are going to have a great event this weekend. Although all the Dodge Corner tickets are sold I would encourage any one interested in attending this weekend to come on up! If you would like more information please contact me.

 

[MHQC]

That is a really nice story. What time is the race Pat? I would like to catch it.

 

[George Murray]

You Canucks...it figures you found a way to get Molson thrown in there ;-)

Great event you guys are doing. well done!

 

[Viperzilla]

Give us the air time, I'd love to see that as well, Vipers and charities, doesn't get any better! Glad you could squeeze that last Viper in. Take pics for us and post them.

Of course, George, they gotta have the beer. haha

 

[phiebert]

The main race is at 1pm on Sunday and I believe we are doing the Dodge Viper and Truck parade lap at around 11:15am. The Vipers will parade around with the celebrities (I'm hoping for Pamela Anderson!) and the trucks take the Indy drivers around. Hopefully you can find it televised on a local station. I'm sure the "Speed" channel will televise it eventually if not live.

 

[Toby]

Make a wish does some wonderful things. Great story.

 

[Tomer]

This is great! Way to go!!

Tomer

 

[Saleen-Explorer]

Make a wish does some wonderful things. Great story.

I agree, my family is heavily involved in charities and everything. Haven't done anything with Make a Wish, but when we get the Viper or Porsche I wouldn't mind at all giving those kids a ride.

Just hard to do, upsetting seeing kids or younger people around my age (21) who are terminally ill being so young.

You know that made that kids day.

 

[ruckdr]

Patrick,
Take and share pictures with us.
Later,

 

[ceieio]

Patrick - outstanding! This is a great thing to do.
Go Canada!

Craig

 

[phiebert]

FYI, According to their web site at http://www.speedtv.com/schedule/index.php?m=07&d=27&ts=1059278400&timezone=0&subcat=&program=&usecal=yes the pre-race and main event of the Vancouver Indy will air at 9pm on Sunday on Speed Channel.

 

[Yves]

Patrick,

Nice initiative ! I'm sure this will be a great experience for the kid.

 

[phiebert]

Just wanted to update everyone on this Indy weekend event.

First off, congrats to Paul Tracy for his win of this weekend's CART race in Vancouver!

Second, thanks to Dodge (specifically Peter Badenoch and John MacDonald) for making sure our wish to put Franco from the Children's Wish Foundation in the Viper Celebrity Parade Lap.

Franco and his family had a great time. Last Tuesday Franco didn't think he would ever be able to see a race like the Indy in person. Well, not only did he and his family get Dodge Corner first class VIP seats, pit passes and paddock passes, but he and his sister Lisa came with us during our 23 Viper two laps of the track on Saturday night! Franco and his family received Dodge shirts, hats, seat cushions, etc from Dodge and then on Sunday just before the start of the big race, Franco joined us as one of the celebrities in the official parade lap. He was seen by over 65,000 people live and millions on TV.

And just when he thought his 15 minutes of fame had ended, he woke up this morning to see himself on the cover of the Vancouver Sun newspaper which did a story on his weekend!

The weekend was a great experience for all of us but especially for Franco. Glad we could make it happen together with help from DaimlerChrysler.

I'll post pictures and video of this event on our regions website in the next few days for anyone interested.

We plan on making our involvement with chairities a regular occurrence and I encourage the other regions to do the same. For example, at our next Autocross event we are going to have it announced on local radio stations and invite people to come to watch and make donations to a charity. Viper's always bring out a crowd, we might as well start making use of their magnetic power!