Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Turn5 creates teen’s dream ride
The e-commerce business uses expertise to modify cancer survivor’s F-150 truck
“These guys go beyond just doing the basics. They want to blow the doors off the kid’s wish. No stone is ever left unturned with them. They understand the transformational nature of Make-AWish.” – Dennis Heron, president and CEO of Make-A-Wish of Southeastern Pa.
EAST WHITELAND » Levi King isn’t a big talker, so when he described the new pickup truck given to him after the crew at Turn5 got ahold of it as “frickin’ awesome,” the comment carried a lot of weight.
King, a cancer survivor and Ford F-150 truck enthusiast, received the modified truck at Turn5’s annual picnic last week in the parking lot of its Lee Boulevard offices.
The company that sells aftermarket parts online for Ford and Jeep models came across King’s story when a nurse where he was being treated contacted the MakeA-Wish Foundation, an organization with which Turn5 has formed a close relationship.
King’s mother, Heather, said her son is recovering from thyroid cancer and has been “clean” from cancer during recent checkups. Just finished with high school, Levi is working in construction in the Allentown area at the moment.
“Make-A-Wish has given him such a gift,” Heather King said as the family joined Levi to examine the revamped F-150 for the first time on Wednesday.
Turn5 added more than $20,000 worth of modifications to it, including body work and new exterior paint in gunmetal gray, a 4-inch suspension lift kit, new wheels and 34inch tires, exterior upgrades including bumpers, step bars and grilles in all black as well as an aftermarket exhaust and other performance upgrades.
Justin Dugan, video host and writer at AmericanTrucks. com, one of Turn5’s websites, held a microphone to the exhaust pipe as hundreds of company employees cheered the purring engine.
Dugan said King had an interesting reaction when he
found out what was being done for him.
“You said give it to someone else – what a great kid,” Dugan said as King inspected his new prized possession. “This is for you to take road trips with your friends and to take hunting.”
The company supports Make-A-Wish by donating all parts and labor for vehicle makeovers. In addition to King’s 1996 F-150, Turn5 recently donated a Jeep makeover to another area Make A Wish Recipient and made over the jeep of a Delaware County police officer wounded on the job.
Turn5 has donated a total of five vehicle makeovers over the past three years.
But it does more than makeovers for Make-AWish. It was challenged this year to raise $75,000 at its AmericanMuscle Car Show held at Maple Grove Raceway in Berks County. That would have beaten last year’s total by $10,000.
On Wednesday, Turn5 CEO Steve Voudouris presented a check of $126,751 to Dennis Heron, president and CEO of Make-A-Wish’s Philadelphia area chapter. To date Turn5 has donated $229,329 to the organization.
“We absolutely crushed it,” Voudouris said of the employees’ performance at the car show.
Make-A-Wish grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions. The wishes infuse recipients with hope, strength and joy, Heron said.
Heron said Turn5 has become one of the Philadelphia area chapter’s biggest supporters in the three years since it started its involvement with Make-AWish.
“These guys go beyond just doing the basics,” Heron said. “They want to blow the doors off the kid’s wish. No stone is ever left unturned with them. They understand the transformational nature of MakeA-Wish.”