It was a marine blue 1965 Land Rover S2a that caught the boys’ eye at that California car show so many years ago and the Cars for Kids car show in 2015 was going to be his way of paying that love of automobiles forward. Well it actually wasn’t the Land Rover itself that made such an impression on a 10 year old Yianni Kokolakis, it was the owner of the car’s willingness to talk with a 10 year old boy about it. Talk they did. The owner patiently answered each of young Yianni’s questions. A conversation that an older young man, concedes may have lasted only 10 or 20 minutes, seemed to take up the entire day and somewhere during that conversation the seed of an idea was planted: What if there was a car show that catered to kids… One where ALL of their questions would be patiently answered and to top it off, THEY would vote for the winners. Now THAT would be a car show!
The seed gestated over many years and many car shows. Ideas came and were discarded. The good ones got filed away. As Yianni’s senior year in high school loomed, the final piece clicked into place and he realized now at 17 years old, that this might be his last opportunity to get this off the ground here in his community, before he left for college and, well, the rest of his life. The piece that had been missing was the recipient of the proceeds from the car show. He had noticed through the years, that most automobile shows helped raise money for some cause, whether it was a local car club or a local non-profit. As Yianni tossed that idea around, he realized that it should be something that benefitted kids. Not only would they get to choose the winning vehicles, but they’d be winners too, by benefiting from the money that was raised. In pondering the recipient, he thought back to his not-too-distant youth and remembered those things that he enjoyed being a part of, those things that he had gained from as a participant. His choice ended up being to work with the youth education programs at the Dunedin Fine Art Center and he found a willing partner in DFAC’s Youth Education Director, Todd Still.
“Mr. Todd got the idea right away,” says Yianni, “and he had some great ideas like partnering it with DFAC’s yearly Kid’s ART Fest at the beginning of September. He gave us the whole parking lot work with for the car show. That was a great show of faith in what we were trying to do.”
“It was easy to show faith” Mr. Still concedes. “Whereas so many event planners don’t think through all of the elements, Yianni had it all roughed out. He was committed to not only a successful car show, but also a successful fundraiser and was willing to put in the time up front to make it happen. He had sponsors lined up, he had car owners lined up. Now if only the weather had cooperated with him, he would hit it out of the park.”
Ask any fundraiser the sign of a well-planned fundraising event and one of the answers is likely to be an event so well thought out that it makes money for its cause even if it is rained out. While the single day event on September 12, 2015 wasn’t an entire washout, rain kept many of the classic cars home, protected in their dry garages and quite a few of the young viewers choosing less soggy indoor activities as well. For those who did brave the weather, there were some vehicular treats to be had and a lot of joy in voting for their favorites. “That’s what I was going for,” shared young Mr. Kokolakis, “that look in the kids’ eyes when they understood THEY were doing the choosing… THEY were going to decide who went home with the trophies. I guess that’s what that guy with the Jeep did for me so many years ago. He showed me my thoughts mattered. It felt pretty great.”
It also felt pretty great to the Dunedin Fine Art Center last week when Yianni Kokolakis called to say he had all of the finances figured out and he would be dropping by his donation of $2800. You see, they had a perfect project for it. They were launching what they are calling their Wheels on Wheels program, which is a school bus that is being converted into a mobile pottery studio including 10 pottery wheels that will bring the hands-on clay experience to school children throughout the county. “I thought that was perfect,” concluded Yianni Kokolakis. “Hopefully other kids will also get the idea that they can really make a difference, really help out if they put their mind to it. The wheels on the bus really do go round and round!”