(WXYZ) — It’s beginning to look a lot like the Woodward Dream Cruise in Bloomfield Hills.
7 Action News attended the Corvettes on Woodward event, which celebrates all things Corvette while raising money for a great cause.
“It’s a 1976 Stingray Corvette. It was the last year they used Stingray,” said Mary Macionski, a Corvette owner who lives in Commerce Township.
Mary was all about showing off her sweet ride.
“The color is called bright yellow and they made 3,900 of them,” she said.
She explained why she’s been showing off her car for the past 20 years.
“People give me the thumbs up. They smile. It makes everybody happy. So if you’re making someone happy, you’re happy,” said Mary.
She told us that she loves that the Corvettes on Woodward — the largest Corvette event in Michigan — partners with local Royal Oak food pantry Open Hands.
So we took a quick detour south on Woodward to check out the nonprofit.
“Well this is the garden where the produce and such is being grown for distribution out to our clients,” said Bruce Donigan, Chair, Open Hands Food Pantry. “So now we’re at a point where we’re serving 22,000 a year, open two Saturdays a month.”
He says they’ve developed a deep relationship with the Corvette Club.
“People who park here who have been doing this for 20 years in the church on cruise day, they want to be here, because they know what good we do,” said Donigan.
Back up in Bloomfield Hills we got to talk to Larry Courtney — and in the world of Corvettes — he’s a big deal.
“I’m the one that organized it right from the beginning, Corvettes on Woodward. We do Michigan Corvette events. And we’ve done this for 17 years as a food drive. I’ve been doing Corvette events for 19 years,” said Larry Courtney, creator of Corvettes on Woodward.
He says Corvettes on Woodward is the largest Corvette event in Michigan, and for the past 17 years they’ve been collecting food and funds for Open Hands.
“The first year we had a couple of barrels of food. And then eventually it grew up to where we had half of the garage filled up with food,” said Courtney.
He says the need is big and so are the hearts of Corvette owners.
“Corvette owners are very generous. Every Corvette event basically is a charity event for something,” he said. And this time it’s all about Open Hands Food Pantry.
