Car Community Gives Back to the Kids

December 2, 2014
Story By
Scott Martin

In preparation for the 11th annual Motor4Toys Charity Car Show & Toy Drive this coming weekend, the annual Toy Run from Supercar Sunday was held November 23rd. It's just a two-block cruise from Woodland Hills' Westfield Mall where Supercar Sunday is held to the Toys R Us store on Topanga Boulevard, but makes for a fun cruise with participating exotics, hot rods, collectibles, restomods, and everything in between joining together for a great cause.

The weekly Supercar Sunday car show prior to the Toy Run attracted a wide variety of vehicles, as usual. The unlikely side-by-side pairing of Bruce Jenner's GT3RS Porsche and Jeff Dunham's restored Bradley GT garnered some double-takes. Classic Chevy's of SoCal Club was there too, as was the GTO club with a winning car from Monterey.

The objective of the Toy Run is to purchase toys that will be brought to the Motor4Toys event that happens close by at the Anthem Blue Cross parking lot in Warner Center. At the event on December 7th expect 5000 collector and exotic vehicles of every type, as well as “star cars” and even some celebrities and their cars. Last year there were three helicopters between Fire, Police, and Rescue; plus multiple SWAT, Fire, Police, and other specialty vehicles as well. Attendees to the event are welcome to bring an unwrapped toy worth at least ten dollars - at the Toy Run participants get a head start on the festivities and special treatment at Toys R Us...

The stores managers forwarded us “Black Friday” pricing and dedicated checkout lines to make sure everything went smoothly. Even Geoffrey the Giraffe made an appearance and was available for the now-famous yearly Toy Run Group Photo with the cars, enthusiasts and toys in front of the store. Motor4Toys began as a very modest gathering 11 years ago and is now one of the biggest motor enthusiast charity events in the world. Dustin Troyan, who is also the coordinator of Supercar Sunday, had the idea to invite a few of his friends in the car community for a Holiday Car Show and see how many toys they could collect for kids. The result was 3,400 toys and Dustin realized he was on to something.

Over the years, the toy count has just about doubled annually, to the point where the tenth anniversary garnered an amazing 50,000 toys. Donated toys have been contributed to many organizations over the years including centers for homeless kids in Central L.A., the Boys and Girls Clubs, Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles Fire Department and LA Country Sherriff. This year, the primary recipient is Los Angeles Children’s Hospital and the target amount is 60,000.

The key to all this success is knowing that this is truly a community effort, not just by single people, but by the car community as a whole. Everyone helping on the day of the event or year-round are volunteers… 100% of all toys and funds collected are donated; there are no salaries associated with the Foundation. They do this because they believe in their cause and feel strongly that every child deserves a toy during the Holiday season.

Every year, car clubs come in force - local clubs, those from all over California, and also clubs from surrounding states show up to join the festivities and bring carloads of toys. During the event, single clubs may take up an entire parking grid! Individual owners are also welcomed into areas with the same make and model, or many of the lineups of parked cars are mix ‘n match. But everyone is having a great time, whether chatting with their neighboring cars’ owners or walking around visiting friends and making new ones.

DrivingLine will bring you full coverage from the Motor4Toys event, or head to Woodland Hills this Sunday to join in! For more info on attending or how to contribute, visit www.motor4toys.com.

Car Community Gives Back to the Kids

What Others Are Reading

Recommended For You