Ford Mustang owners have always been fanatics about their cars, but in 2022, the members of Pacific Cascade Mustang Club got a little fanatical about something else — supporting our community. While we’ve always supported the community through events such as our annual car show and Christmas auction, 2022 was a benchmark year for our charitable giving that far exceeded everyone’s expectations.
PCMC has been long-time supporters of Pediatric Interim Care Center. Also known as PICC, Pediatric Interim Care Center is an interim care nursery for prenatally drug-exposed and medically fragile newborns. It’s the only specialized care center of its kind in Washington state and based in Kent, the same city where PCMC is based. In August, we donated the 50/50 raffle proceeds from our annual car show to PICC. The winner of the 50/50 raffle also donated their winnings back to PICC, for a total of $1,225 in donations.
In October, the club participated in their third Walk for the Babies, an annual Walk-A-Thon and fundraiser for Pediatric Interim Care Center. PCMC’s participation in the Walk for the Babies came about in 2020, when we weren’t able to have our annual car show due to Covid restrictions. Still looking for ways that we could support PICC, we formed a team for the Walk that has since become such a success that we’ve continued for the last three years. In 2022, we topped the team fundraising leaderboard with $5,075 in donations.
To top things off, the club voted in November to donate proceeds from our annual car show to Pediatric Interim Care Center to the tune of $8,000.
We wrapped up the year like we normally do, with our annual Christmas party and charity auction. Every year we host a Christmas party for our club members that features a blind auction where we bid on wrapped gifts for local charities. It’s always fun watching members outbid each other and then seeing what they won when they unwrap their gifts! Through our Christmas auction, we raised another $1,295 for PICC and $790 for Toys for Joy, a toy drive run by the local Kent Firefighters that collects toys and gifts for children in the Kent area.
We were also looking for new ways that we could support the community. It all started with an idea — since we are a club of auto enthusiasts, how can we support younger people that are hoping to start a career in the automotive industry? After researching several local vocational schools and their automotive programs, we settled on Renton Technical College for their support of the Ford ASSET program. Ford ASSET, which is short for Automotive Student Service Educational Training, is an intensive program that trains students to work as professional automotive technicians. Students work on Ford products in ASE-certified centers, and are sponsored by an authorized Ford or Lincoln dealership where they complete part of their training. Renton Technical College is the only school in Washington state offering the Ford ASSET program. In April, PCMC donated $6,400 to support four students with scholarships to complete their training.
So there you have it, our year of giving back that far exceeded anyone’s expectations. All told, we surpassed $22,500 in charitable donations in 2022! We are extremely proud of the support our club and members have given back to our local community and are looking forward to supporting these programs and organizations for many years to come.