CVR Takes On Worthy Charitable and Civic Causes

One of the objectives of CVR beyond our car-related activities is to support worthy charitable and civic causes. I’m devoting this column to report to you on how we are doing in this area — and I am happy to report the news is good. Under the able and passionate leadership of our Community Service Chair, Susan Alyson Young, 2018 will be a year of multiple events and actions by CVR to help make our community a better place. A car club can’t solve all the world’s problems, but we should all feel a sense of shared pride of what we are able to positively contribute.

Malcom Pray Achievement Center (Pray Family Foundation)

The story of Malcom Pray is a uniquely American success story. From his humble beginning in 1955 as a salesman at a foreign car dealership in Greenwich, Malcom later built the business into six dealerships (including Pray Porsche in Greenwich) employing over 200 people — before selling the dealerships to New Country in 1999.

Mr. Pray was well-known across the globe as collector of fine automobiles. Long-time CVR members will remember being invited to visit Mr. Pray’s Greenwich estate where we were treated to great food and personal tours of the six on-site garages where the bulk of his collection was stored at the time.

In 2001 Mr. Pray opened the Pray Achievement Center in nearby Banksville, NY, to house his extensive collection of cars and automobilia. The stated purpose of the Pray Achievement Center is to inspire young people to become successful by setting goals and pursing those goals using Mr. Pray’s “12 Steps to Success”, highlighting examples within the collection to help illustrate the inspirational lessons of innovation and entrepreneurship. Since Malcom’s death in 2013, the Pray Family Foundation has elected to continue this mission instead of completely liquidating the collection.

Trish and I have been affiliated with youth groups visiting Pray Achievement Center and are also contributors to the foundation. This year, CVR also made a modest contribution in recognition of Malcom Pray’s past generosity to the club. To learn more about the Malcom Pray Achievement Center, please go to www.prayachievementcenter.org.

Spooner House, Shelton, CT

The mission of Spooner House is to provide food, shelter and support services to people in need within the entire lower Naugatuck Valley area. They are devoted to helping their clients establish a self-sufficient living situation. Spooner House is unique in that they are able to serve the needs of entire families, not just individual family members or children.

Probably like many of you, I first became aware of Spooner House thanks to Dan Jacobs, LLC. Attendees of our yearly meetings at the Hairy Dog Garage over the years have come to recognize and deeply appreciate the importance of the work done by Spooner House. Our June meeting at Dan Jacobs LLC will have occurred by the time you read this, but I’m confident that CVR people will have once again delivered significant quantities of food items to donate to Spooner House to go along with the financial contribution proudly made by CVR. And thank you Dan Jacobs, LLC for forging this partnership with CVR and Spooner House.

Dream Ride Experience — To Benefit the Special Olympics and the Hometown Foundation

CVR members who braved the severe storms to attend CVR’s May meeting at Musante Motorsports learned that CVR will participate in the “Dream Ride Experience” at the Farmington Polo Grounds in Farmington, CT on Aug 3-5. Our participation will officially be on August 5 as part of the “Dream Show” where we hope to have a special display section for CVR member’s Porsches. CVR members can sign up for the Dream Show, or any of the many other of the weekend’s events directly on the Dream Ride website. Now in its 18th year, this show has grown to be the largest in New England. While Porsche has been underrepresented in the past, we hope to change that this year. More than just a car show, you can expect food, music, and fun and all for a good cause! Thanks to the generosity of Bozzuto’s Inc., and the Dream Show’s other sponsors, 100% of the entry fees paid by CVR attendees will go to the Special Olympics. Learn more and sign up at www.DreamRide.org. And special thanks to Joe Morrow for getting CVR involved in this event.

An Afternoon with Wayne Carini – To Benefit Autism Families CONNECTicut

Three years ago, at one of our largest gatherings in memory, CVR members converged from all corners of the region to meet at Wayne Carini’s F40 Motorsports in Portland, CT, to hear Wayne speak about the collector car business, his life as a reluctant celebrity thanks to his starring TV role in the smash Velocity Channel hit, “Chasing Classic Cars”, and visit the business that many of us had only previously been able to see on TV. Most importantly, thanks to fantastic participation from CVR members and private CVR donors, a substantial donation was made by CVR to Autism Families CONNECTicut — an organization that is very important to Wayne and anyone else with a family member or friend in our state on the autism spectrum.

Autism Families CONNECTicut is unique in that their mission is to provide LOCAL services to individuals on autism spectrum. Learn more here: http://www.autismfamiliesct.org.

Please mark your calendars for October 13 (rain date October 14) as we will reprise this event with Wayne. Watch for further communication from event chair Susan Alyson Young — and once registration opens, sign-up right away for what will likely be another sold-out CVR event to benefit a great cause!