Every third Saturday morning of the month, the owners of some of the nicest "classic" cars in the area all join up at the Grand Terrace Medical Plaza parking lot for a few hours of "Cars and Coffee." When one thinks of what a "Cars and Coffee Show" is all about, their minds are surely brought directly to the caffeine-filled walk through of some of the nicest older cars that money can buy. However, for this group, the cars have become much more than that, they have grown together to become a tight-knit group, and have became a source of light and positivity in the community in the process.
"It's all about trying to have the group mean something other than just a bunch of people standing around talking about cars, and that's giving back to the community and doing what we can to support them," Cars and Coffee Show Coordinator Johan Gallo said.
The support that Gallo is referring to is the numerous sponsors that the Cars and Coffee show has acquired in the short time since Gallo took over the program, including current and past partnerships with Woody's Classic Grill, Rob's Barbershop, the Lion's Club, AutoZone and others. Those connections that the group made with their sponsors proved to be invaluable to the community, as it opened the door for the first big charity event that Cars and Coffee participated in.
"I had gone over to Woody's and he was telling me about a toy drive they're having, and with Covid-19 going on, they weren't getting much of a response," Gallo said. "About that same time I was approached by Nicole Littlefield, who was working with the Santa Claus parade. So the group agreed to do the parade and we decorated our cars with all the Christmas lights and everything, and we let the community know that we're collecting toys."
What started as an attempt to make children in the community just a little bit happier, ended with way more than that. According to Gallo, each of the children in the program, one that is designed for children of mothers who are recovering addicts, alcohol or abuse survivors, received three toys, making it the first time in the 20-year history of the charity that they were able to give children gifts for three straight days.
Children are not the only ones who are benefiting from the good nature of the group, as they also recently helped a 101-year-old World War II veteran celebrate his birthday. When Gallo heard from the local Girl Scouts about the veteran from the senior center, he put together 18 cars from the Cars and Coffee group and made three laps around the center. Then, because a few of the seniors missed out on seeing the cars, Cars and Coffee decided to do a whole extra parade just for them.
Gallo says this is just the beginning and not the end of the group's charitable efforts, as they are already on board for doing the toy drive and the Christmas parade again this year.
"We need to straighten out some things, paperwork and stuff that need to be done better, but we're committed to doing this again next year."