Quote: Unfortunately, cancer was a recurring topic at Carlisle this year from Paul Wilson of MCG who passed away the day before the show started to John Kozak who I had only been made aware of about 2 weeks before the show. John owns the beautiful green Fury that was on the Stage all weekend. John's story was heartbreaking to say the least. His longtime girlfriend had passed away just 30 days before the Chrysler show and all John wanted was to attend Carlisle and thanks to some great friends he was able to attend.
I heard about Eli from another Carlisle staff member and I just wanted to do something. Ralph's account in the original post pretty much tells the rest of the story. We had no idea what we were getting into but we needed a place to do the work. I put out a few feelers to some shops that I know but they had obligations and couldn't fit it in on such short notice.
After that I immediately thought of Gary and Pam Beineke because they have a fully equipped shop but they don't do customer cars. I sent Gary an email hoping that he'd get back to me in a couple of days. WRONG! He called me in less than 1/2 an hour telling me that he had already talked to Pam and they were in!!!
From there it was time to start looking for parts, supplies, etc and folks stepped up big time! Please take a look at the show board and consider those folks first the next time you need parts.
Thank you to everyone involved. As Eli said, he now has something positive to look forward to.
Ed
Thanks Ed for making both Johns visit and Eli's car memorable occasions. I can only hope that our actions of getting Johns car together and at Carlisle inspired others to do similar acts of kindness. John was not going to attend but it was my wife who told him "you can feel bad here or you can feel bad in Carlisle, at least you have cars to look at and people to meet." John and Eli keep in touch and we can only hope they are able to share the stage in 2011. Remember we all don't know how long we have here on this earth so pay it forward.
