The Mission of our
group, Cruisin For Heroes http://www.cruisinforheroes.com/ is to raise awareness
and money for Veteran and First Responder charities. We have been focused on The Fisher House
Foundation the last few years as it uses over 90% of the donated funds directly
for the Veteran….one of the gold standards in charities. https://www.fisherhouse.org/ One of the ways we accomplish this goal is to
offer a classic vehicle display with accompanying owners that are customer
friendly to add to a business’s event.
Such as a Grand Opening, a Cruise in, airshow, car show or a winery’s
special day. Sunday we set up a display
at Morais Vineyard & Winery in Bealeton, VA to accompany their special days
events. We negotiate a donation to
Fisher House as a price to provide the vehicles. We have a list of 70 people that have agreed
to attend our events if they are not engaged at something else. These volunteers are handpicked for their
vehicle AND their demeanor and friendliness to spectators and customers. We
have a pretty awesome group that helps us.
So….the invitations to
the volunteers went out in January for Sunday’s event at Morais Winery and about
30 responded that they would support this event. The Winery made a special basket to be raffled
off and the sales would be donated to Fisher House….that ended up being
$273. The Winery will donate another
$500 plus a % of their days business.
The vendors will donate a % of their days business and our friend Denny
will donate $80 from the sale of his handmade wine bottle stoppers! We put a “donation barrel” on the table in
the Fisher House canopy so people can donate through us….we collected $300 in
it! I think it was a good day for the Fisher
House Foundation because of the support of our volunteers, Morais Winery and
the customers that visited the Winery. Thank
you!
The day was picture
perfect weather-wise and the volunteers began setting up around 9AM and
everyone was in place by 11AM. The food
vendor, Shawn’s Smokehouse BBQ, was superb.
The Italian ice cream vendor was a welcome addition and I think they did well too.
The winery provided a very cool musical group, Acoustic Soul; https://www.facebook.com/BookAcousticSoul/?hc_location=ufi
We set up a “Hospitality” canopy for those that want to sit together and visit
instead of behind their car. Usually it
ends up being a place for the ladies to gather….but not always.
The folks at the
Winery were extremely helpful and gracious to us and our volunteers. They conducted tours of the Winery at the
beginning of each hour. Joe, the owner,
opened the door to his private auto collection….it is a very eclectic
collection with some vehicles one does not usually see. This Winery has the
most welcoming persona of any winery around and once you begin to explore the
grounds a little it feels very comfortable.
They have a ‘chapel’ that can accommodate a wedding with 3000 guests! They are open Friday-Sunday….check out their
website for hours of operation. http://moraisvineyards.com/
We had the Morais
basket drawing at 4:30 then released everyone for the day…. The members of Cruisin For Heroes stayed and
staged some photos in front of Joe’s car collection building….the end of a
great day!
The pictures for the day are parked here; https://www.flickr.com/photos/53063560@N05/albums/72157667158310741
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