Supercars make wishes come true
More than $130,000 has been raised for the Children's Wish Foundation since 2014
It’s been four years since Vancouver’s supercar community joined forces with the B.C. and Yukon Chapter of the Children’s Wish Foundation to raise money and give kids the rides of their lives.
To date, more than $130,000 has been raised, primarily through the efforts of participants in the Hublot Diamond Rally and luxury dealership Ferrari Maserati of Vancouver. The latter holds a gala reception at its Burrard location on the Thursday before the rally, which took place last weekend with 200 supercars heading up the Sea to Sky Highway to Pemberton Airport for some drag racing, and then an overnight in Whistler.
“Whether it’s driving a supercar in the Diamond Rally or granting a sick child’s most heartfelt wish, we can all believe in the power of a dream,” says foundation director Jennifer Petersen, Children’s Wish B.C. and Yukon Chapter provincial director. “We’re so proud to come together with our friends at Ferrari Maserati of Vancouver for the fourth year, to celebrate our drivers, our donors and our children.”
Sun readers might well remember Joey, the first wish kid to be taken under the wing of the supercar crowd. A Ferrari freak, his wish of joining his family on a trip to Ferrari headquarters in Italy was granted thanks to the generosity of the car owners. A year later, money raised sent Nick and his family, including five brothers, to Fiji. And last year, Diamond Rally supporters teamed up to grant Andrew’s wish of travelling to the Ferrari Museum in Italy, raising more than $30,000.
This past Saturday, seven drivers represented Children’s Wish in the Hublot Diamond Rally, including Sunny Aujla, Mark Green, Rob Heimbecker, Bashir Hirjee, Aya Primbetova, Nicole Yang and Jiahe Zhou. Meanwhile, FMOV’s sales executive Victor Yeh had the honour of having this year’s wish kid serve as his navigator on the drive up the Sea to Sky.
Seventeen-year-old Connor was thrilled to sit in the passenger seat of a Ferrari GTC4Lusso T for the ride.
“This was an opportunity to be around cars I’ve never really seen before,” said the Grade 12 student of the rally, adding with a laugh, “and probably won’t be able to see ever again.”
Connor was born with a major heart condition requiring multiple surgeries throughout his childhood, fighting through difficult procedures and uncertainty to become the fine young man he is today. He’s going to take next year off school once he graduates from Samuel Roberts high school in Maple Ridge in June, then attend BCIT to study broadcasting, with an eye to the sports booth.
“I’ve always wanted to be a play-by-play guy,” he says.
Connor’s wish is to travel with his family to Disney World and Harry Potter. “I love Harry Potter. I think I’ve read each book at least seven times,” he says. “We’re all going to go down and just get away from the crazy, day-to-day everything and have a great time for a week. Get closer together as a family.”
Thanks to the efforts of those involved in the supercar rally, they’ll do just that in September.