FERRARI CLUB OF AMERICA – HOUSTON CHAPTER
2009 BRIBE THE JUDGE CONCOURS
SATURDAY FEBRUARY 21, 2009
On February 21st the Houston Chapter of the Ferrari Club of America held their third annual Bride the Judge Concours supporting the Ronald McDonald House of Greater Houston. This has become an annual event for the Chapter, however, hurricane Ike forced us to postpone our 2008 event when the Ronald McDonald House sustained significant damage and all families had to move out until repairs were completed. With repairs complete and families back in residence it was now time for the Ferrari Club to spend an afternoon with the children and families at Ronald McDonald House. While the event itself is styled as a low key fun concours, it is in fact a fund raising event benefiting Ronald McDonald House. For anyone not familiar with Ronald McDonald House, this facility serves as a home away from home for families with children who are being treated for cancer and other serious illnesses.
Saturday the 21st dawned with cloudy skies and a high probability of rain. The high probability turned into certainty as the forecasted cold front blew into town. But a little rain didn’t stop the Ferrari’s from showing up one by one and taking their places in the Ronald McDonald parking lot. After the rain stopped each participant began preparing their car to be judged. During the preparation of the car, each participant placed a bribe for the judges to find; the bigger the bribe the better chance to win a trophy. With all the bribes going directly to Ronald McDonald House there was good incentive to be generous.
While the contestants were busy bribing the judges, the children of Ronald McDonald House were also busy judging the entry’s in some very special non traditional concours categories. These weren’t your normal concours categories but were ones the children found fun and entertaining. Some of these special categories were: Fastest Looking Car, Favorite Car, Dirtiest Car, Funniest Looking Car, Funniest Looking Driver, Driver with the Most Speeding Tickets, Best Sounding Car, etc.
After the children had completed the judging and all the bribes have been collected everyone adjourned to the lobby of Ronald McDonald House, where over cake and soft drinks, the long awaited awards presentation took place. Because this is not a regular concours you won’t find regular trophies; the ones presented here are very special because they are made by the children of Ronald McDonald House. And now for the envelope with the winners: Jim Rauh won for the Most Cleverly Hidden Bribe, Michael Winstone won an award for his successful bribe, but the top honor, The Rob Blagojevich award went to Mandy Williams. These awards honor the generosity of the entrants, but for many the most interesting awards are the ones for the categories the children judged. The children’s award for the fastest looking car went to Mandy Williams for her 430 Challenge, you can’t fool these kids, Michael Winstone and his 430 Scuderia won the award for most speeding tickets, no comment, Piers Gormly’s 550 Maranello easily won for the dirtiest car, Bob Weiner’s Morris Minor won for funniest car and Mike McNamee won for funniest driver. Additional winners were Ronny Ravkind, Charles Roff, Randy Lopez, and Susan Ellerbeck. All the children that made awards got their own copy of the award to keep, in addition, each child, his or her siblings and their visitors received a Ferrari cap as well as additional toys provided by the participants.
After the awards were presented Mickey Donnelly from Ronald McDonald House got up to thank the Club and its members for putting on the event. What she said brought home the real value of an event like this. She said the money we raised today was greatly appreciated and made her fund raising effort a little easier, however, she said we would be welcome back anytime even we didn’t bring our check books. “Bringing your cars out today will be the topic of conversation around Ronald McDonald House for weeks to come” she said. “The real value of you coming here and bringing out your cars today was to give to, not only the children but their parents, a few hours where they can forget the realities and struggles they are going through and to be able to enjoy themselves and just have some fun.”
It is easy to forget while we are out playing with our cars how lucky we all truly are. When you see the joy and excitement on the faces of the children and the parents as they look at the cars, check out the engines and climb into the drivers seat you realize that putting a little joy and happiness into their lives is small price to pay for giving up an afternoon. The club would like to thank Celia and Ronny Ravkind for all the time and effort they put into making this event a success.