Catalyst Gears Up For “24 Hour Race Of LeMons”

Don’t let the headline fool you. This is not the glitzy, 24-hour, multi-million dollar  supercar showdown at Le Mans, France. This is the 24 Hour Race of LeMons (i.e. the fruit) which is a lot more fun, cheap as hell and wears its heart on its sleeve because many of the cars are out there trying to raise money for charity. That’s us in No. 308 last year – when we weren’t repairing it.

Check out a cool video about the race after the jump and see some of the kids that we are trying to help out.

And let’s not forget that every car running is a top of the line automotive, super-charged beast. OK, that was a complete lie. More super-clunker than supercar, every car has to cost less than $500 which means it’s less about how fast you go and more about just going long enough to limp across the line. But all in a good cause.

Just look at this video.

Catalyst has a car running this weekend and one of the charities we’ll be supporting is the Alexander Leigh Center for Autism, located in Lake in the Hills. When they set up in 2007, they had two students and we donated a banner. In recent years, we have become a full-time supporter of this excellent school. Now, the Center has expanded to almost 20 students with autism. The year-round facility caters for children aged 3-12 years and as an ISBE-approved school, has a wide range of programmes tailored to suit each child. The Center covers everything from sensory regulation, engagement, communication, academics and socialization to reduction of maladaptive behavior, life skills, parent support and community integration.

“As a nonprofit organization, we look for the support of businesses to help us fundraise and bridge the gap in the costs of providing equipment, program materials and training to the staff and students,” says Kelly Weaver, co-founder of the Center. ”Children with autism need 1:1 support and since every child is unique, so are their programs. We are thrilled to have partnered with Catalyst. They are a great company with tremendous people.”

Whatever we are, we’ll be driving a crappy car for 24-hours to help out. To find out more about the Center visit their site here. If you’d like to help out or sponsor of Clunkerthon this weekend, contact us here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 at 9:14 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.