The following was posted on CorvetteForum.com by a member using the screen name “Flyzlow” on March 22, 2006. It’s a story about a young boy fighing Leukemia and how a Corvette club rallied to support him.
| A few weeks ago my corvette club sent me an email about a 12 year old boy who is dying of leukemia. He lives in Chicago but his wish was to visit his grandparents in Phoenix. His grandparents had told him about Corvettes and he was excited to see one. One of the grandmother’s friends is a member of Sun Country Corvettes here in Phx. and upon hearing of the visit offered to get a group together to do a drive by to their house Friday afternoon after his Chemotherapy. Having battled health problems and chemo myself the past two years I told my wife we were definetely going to take part and drive both of our Vettes for this worthy cause. We met at a Quick trip and found 26 Corvettes and about six Phoenix Police cars there to provide an escort for us all the way to ‘Tylers’ grandparents home. I was never so proud to be part of a group like this. We left at 6:00 pm and drove through red lights and stop signs right to his front door. [Thankyou and God bless you Phoenix Police Dept!] Tyler and his family came outside to see a double line of Vettes all the way down his street and about 35-40 members applauding him and chanting his name, Tyler! Tyler! Soon the neighbors were standing in their yards in awe of the cars and the excitement. He was introduced and a loud unanimous vote was taken to make him an honorary member of our Club. He was given a Corvette hat, a club shirt, a certificate and an assortment of corvette scale model cars. The final moment was for him to walk through the lines of cars and choose any and all that he wanted a ride in. He stated that he liked the old ones but he singled out a silver C6 convertible owned by two of our new members who live a block from me and met our club at a car show at the dealership the day they bought their car just a few months ago. Tyler drove off to the cheers of the crowd and then repeated it time after time in other club members cars. I don’t think anyone there wasn’t affected by the many emotions that this act of kindness brought up in all of us. To my wife and I it was the most worthy reason to ever fire up our cars and spend the gas for a cruise for something far more meaningful than a club dinner or car show or whatever. I think now of some of the posts about Vette owners failing to wave, which exhaust, wheels, mats, radar detector etc. etc. and realize that all of us who made that drive regardless of what year vette or how much it cost, how many mods, or how fast in the quarter just got the biggest bang for our buck that we could ever have gotten from any amount spent on our cars simply by sharing our love for them with a twelve year old who will never drive one or own one but for one afternoon tasted the passion that we enjoy and maybe take for granted. I have been thinking all weekend long about how we can use our cars, our clubs and ourselves in ways that can be as positive and impactful as this was. I want to thank Connie and Jack for organizing this and all of you who participated. Again, thanks Phx. P.D. God Bless You Tyler!! |
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Technorati Tags: Corvette | Leukemia | Phoenix |
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