Contributed by James Turk
Each year the Morgan Autism Center (MAC) hosts a fundraising gala called Starry Starry Night, which is their major fundraiser of the year. This year the event was held “virtually” in response to the latest COVID outbreaks.
The format for the fundraising involves Sponsorship, either individual or corporate, In-Kind donations, which are used in a silent or live auction and/or raffle, and by attending the event.
LPR’s charity committee chairs, Emilie Highley, Kathy Musser and Kris Vanacore, put their heads together and followed Emilie’s suggestion that LPR donate a Porsche Pizza Party to the silent auction.
The bidding for this item was fast and furious, as evidenced by the bidding history on the MAC website chronicling the auction, with Bill Gerber of LWG Construction making the winning bid of $500.
Between Emilie and Bill, a mutually agreeable date was set, and Emilie set about corralling LPR volunteers to help with set up, serving and tear down. The charity committee followed Emilie’s plan to the letter, and on September 15, a gaggle of LPR Porsches showed up at the parking lot of LWG to make good on the pizza party.
The “official” greeters at LWG were Lilly, a very sweet and personable pooch, along with her Directory of Business Development, Melanie Cota, a.k.a. Mel.
As it turns out, LWG and MAC have history! When MAC decided to move to a new building, LWG did the work to make the new home a fantastic place for the clients and staff. Well done, LWG! As you can see from this photo, LWG has a special place in their office for MAC, the Morgan Room.
And, LPR and MAC have a decade long history, too, with LPR raising money for MAC at our annual Kill-A-Kone for Morgan Autism Center autocross. This is a fun event that actually gets some of the better autocross drivers to let it all hang out as they careen around the course, sending orange cones flying. Each cone hit, represents a donation. The more cones that are hit, the more money that is donated to MAC.
MAC was selected as the recipient of the Kill-A-Kone donations when Kris Vanacore was asked by the autocross chair at the time, Anne Roth, to recommend a charity. Having family that was involved with MAC, Kris suggested them. As it turns out, the executive director of MAC, Brad Boardman, is a second generation Porsche Club of America member, and, to quote Kris, “as they say, the rest is history”.
Speaking of donations, you, YES YOU, can donate to the Morgan Autism Center anytime you like. Why wait for the Starry Starry Night gala, or the Kill-A-Kone autocross? The link to the MAC donation page is here: Morgan Autism Center.
Appropriately, we should recognize the LPR members who turned out to help make the Pizza Party a success: Kathy and Johnny Musser, Kris and Tony Vanacore, Dave Dunwoodie, John Gould and James Turk.