Let's check it out.
I'm going to have a huge collection of volvos out here today, I can't wait to see them.
We're going to take the S60, the K-Pax racing car, and we're going to drive it right down
the middle of the car show, and put it under our tent.
The Volvo Open House is a biennial event, something we do every two years now, and it's
a way for the company and its employees to connect with a core group of enthusiasts and
the Volvo loyalists, and it's a great way for us to share what's new, what's exciting
with Volvo.
We always perceive Volvo owners to be our greatest ambassadors, and this is a way for
us to share with them what's new, where Volvo is going, and for them to also celebrate the
past, you know, older cars as well.
So we get the owners together, we get our employees together, and we just have a great
day together, and that's the Volvo Open House.
Everybody has a hobby.
My hobby is driving, I like to drive, I like to go places, I like to meet people, I like
to see things.
Some people sit home and watch a travel channel, I'm my own travel channel, I bought them for
my family when they were growing up, you know, my wife had a new Volvo, my daughters had
a Volvo, Volvo gave me two new ones, one for 1 million miles, one for 2 million miles.
Between those two cars, I put over 500,000 miles on those while I managed to put another
2 million miles on my car, so miles just keep adding up, you know, it's not just one car,
you know, I like to drive, you know, it's my drug of choice.
Alex's Lemonade Stamp Foundation is a non-profit that's dedicated to finding cures for all
kids with cancer.
She was started in the front yard of Alexandra, Alex Scott's, when she was just 4 years old,
she was a childhood cancer patient who wanted to make a difference for other kids fighting
cancer.
When she was 8 years old, she set a goal of raising a million dollars in that year.
She enlisted the help of volunteers around the country to host Lemonade Stands to help
her reach her goal.
When she was very close to that goal, raising just about $700,000, Volvo came and decided
that they wanted to help her reach her goal.
She was very sick at that time and ended up passing away very soon after that, but with
the knowledge that she would reach her million dollar goal, which Volvo propelled her to
do through holding Lemonade Stands and other employee events, and actually that's how they
became the founding sponsor of Alex's Lemonade Stamp Foundation, which went on to become
a non-profit, has now raised over $55 million to find a cure, and has funded over 250 research
projects across the country.
How I ended up with this car was it ended up being stripped for its drivetrain.
A friend of mine gave me a 350 Chevy.
I had a power glide transmission, a little bit ingenuity, and I figured I could get the
car to work with the V8, which seemed like a pretty good idea at the time.
After I accomplished that and drove it around for the first year as a four door, I wanted
to make it something different.
I took the car all apart, stole some panels and pieces from a two door sedan, and created
my two door wagon.
So in Volvo's terms now it's a two series, eight cylinder, three door, and the SD is
something different.
So our 13th year with Volvo, Rick Brighton, the folks here have been really kind to us.
We're using exclusively XC70s, we have eight of the cars in our program, based all over
the country with major parts in Providence, Chicago, and Sacramento.
Relationship started, I said about 13 years ago as a Volvo wanted to get into cycling
in some way, and we were happy to oblige obviously.
The XC70 is just a fantastic vehicle, it has probably the best handling, comfort, safety
obviously, and by the way I'm also a Volvo Save My Life participant, it was in a severe
accident that we were ended by a semi in one of my XC70s, but the car, the prestigious
amount of volume we can put in it, it just can hold so much, we're carrying six bikes
on the roof, 30 wheels inside, it's just hard to find any vehicle that can compare to our
XC70.
