Brightening Children's Lives, One Supercar At A Time

"twinturbobmw" (twinturbobmw) 03/20/2015 at 20:28 • Filed to: Dream Drives for Kids, Tesla

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Being sick or injured is an unpleasant experience, especially as a kid. Eric and Amity Peterson realized this and decided to create a non-profit organization to brighten the lives of children who suffer from illnesses in local hospitals such as Doernbecher Children's Hospital. The Peterson's use their collection of exotic cars to offer exhilarating rides to the children.

It all started last year when a friend of the Peterson's, who worked at OHSU Doernbecher, mentioned that patients and their families would enjoy seeing the car collection. Their organization, Dream Drives For Kids, has gained lots of attention in the past few months since their creation, and continues to grow outside of the Pacific North West. For the first few months the non-profit was kept relatively private, until word got out to a local news station, who covered the story, giving people tons of awareness about them.

Peterson summed up the organization perfectly by saying, "The purpose is simple … to use our exotic car collection to create joy for sick and medically fragile children." The non-profit already has plans to expand nationwide and brighten the lives of children across the US. Recently, Eric reached out to their friends at Tesla Motors to organize an event for the kids at Portland International Raceway. With the help of a few Tesla Model S P85D's, they arranged an event that let anybody ride around the racetrack in the insanely fast electric cars. The sun was out and the kids were smiling, laughing, and having a great time.

I spoke with Jamee Hawn, communications at Tesla, who gladly talked about the company's partnership with Dream Drives for Kids. She mentioned that the organization was a great way to offer kids a distraction from their illnesses and offer a unique opportunity they will never forget. Hawn stated that "Every time you can put a smile on a kid's face it's a great experience." Over the past few months Dream Drives for Kids has been a huge success, and an inspiring way to help those who are ill take their mind off their sickness. When asked what was his favorite part about the organization, Eric stated that, "We get to meet amazing families and make some pretty cool kids really, really happy during the Dream Drive experience."

You can find out more about Dream Drives for Kids on their !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and view more coverage on the event !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Huge thanks to Eric for inviting me to come out to this event, and Tesla, for providing the cars and volunteers to make this possible.

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