The first person who signed up that saw our our notice, I don't know if it was in
AutoWeek or where it was, and called me and said I want to bring my 356 I've got
a super 90 and I'm an old vintage racer and I think this sounds like a lot of
fun and then he said and by the way I've got Parkinson's. I thought if I fail him
I'm gonna fail everything I can't let that happen. -- She didn't fail him
Deb Pollack is the founder and force behind Drive Toward a Cure, which
organizes charity car rallies around the country to support Parkinson's research.
The group hosted its second annual California adventure this year and we
tagged along to see what brings people together, be it the cars or the cause. But
for Deb it's more than just a way to give back. It's personal. -- I lost my mom to
Parkinson's in 2006 and at the time I was working as a volunteer for the
Danville Concours up in Northern California which also
raises money for Parkinson's and we were doing a lot of car programs and I was
the only one it was coming from Southern California I worked with Ferrari and
Maserati at the time and Phil Hill was still alive and he had Parkinson's and
he had been America's first Formula One champion and a part of the Ferrari
Maserati family for many years and I started a program for them once Phil had
passed away to do a driving program that went from the Walnut Creek area up to
Napa which they still continue today they're in their eighth year
and it was a way to do a one-day drive people would always say to me well we're
doing a lunch it's really nice but why don't we do a weekend and I just didn't
have the time to do it I still home to LA and did my work and that was that and
in 2016 my mom would have turned 90 and it would have been ten years since she
was gone and I said gosh you know if I don't start something a little bigger
now and honor her I'm never gonna have the chance to do it the experience of
driving on these roads in this rally is incredibly unique so right now we're
behind a 70s Ford Gran Torino in front of him is an Aston Martin V8 Vantage
behind us is an old Mini and a brand new Porsche 911 GT3 RS running around so
having all these cars on the same stretch of road is pretty remarkable and
it's an incredible sight people have been gawking at us people are pulling
out their phones it's like a combination parade Car Show Road rally charity drive
I mean it's it's it's a very it's a very cool event it's not like a gumball rally
it's not like something that's just expensive cars you know we have
everything from vintage and collectibles all the way on up to exotics and luxury
if people want to support the cause it doesn't matter what they drive we just
want them to be with us we started in 2016 and my goal was to
become a 501 C 3 charitable organization and through the people that I met it
really just takes a village you know I've been in the car industry for a long
time and I thought I want to take care of the people that enjoy driving the
people that I know the people that are part of our culture and could see a
benefit to having a fun day a fun weekend but for a good cause the
camaraderie is wonderful meeting people with similar likes and passions and then
putting it for a cause and meeting some of these people with Parkinson's and
we've had a couple people in our lives with Parkinson's and it's it's really
nice to do something for a good cause that's fun
how have cars changed my life well it's hard to cars have always been in my life
so it's kind of like I was breathing changing life it just is you know it's
it's it's such a huge part of my life I mean this was my dream car one year I
was at my parents house it passed me and I ran after the car to the guy's house
and said this is my dream car if you ever want to sell it I wanted wanna buy
it and he said I would never sell this car yeah so a year later I'm at my
parents house again and he drives by backs up pulls in the garage in the
driveway and says hop in we take off he says I destroyed my shoulder I'm
retiring and moving to Hawaii and I love this car too much to take it to why it's
thirty thousand five hundred dollars and I said sold and I didn't have $30 and I
didn't know how to tell her yeah and my family said cars were wasted
so I did not understand that at all yeah and you said what what is it and I said
well I found my dream car and I told my but I don't know how
and she said figured out that was that was 25 years ago and now I wouldn't sell
this thing for anything in the world exactly and then a guy just told me in
his Ferrari guys when you move in Hawaii
I've done so many press launches what's so hard about doing a drive for a
weekend and I guess the challenge was really seating it out there and getting
people to to know who we were to trust who we were and to to get enough people
to participate and the beautiful part is which is the saddest part everyone seems
to know somebody who's been affected by Parkinson's I meet someone and someone
knows someone and those people want to help us the people that are interested
in coming to our events tend to not be rally rally people you know it's not
about the competition it's not about getting there the fastest or the
farthest you know it's really about people wanting to meet other people
people wanting to experience the type of program that we're doing and have
everything all-inclusive but yet they feel good about being a contributor to
something that's bigger than who they are I often say that I really don't have
a favorite as long as the car makes me smile whether it be a truck the car a
car that's really expensive or a car that's really inexpensive
you're bringing together all different types of cars so everybody just wants to
kind of talk about the individuality of each car and you know what do you have
there's there's no there's no judging there's no finer finer details of
talking about the cars it's just here to have fun
they often mentioned it's about cars and camaraderie right yeah that's perfectly
put because that's really what it's all about just having fun with people that
enjoy cars and also what I've learned due to the charitable organization is
that you know people that are fortunate enough to have interesting cars know
that and they want to give back and this is this is a way of giving back and
having fun and talking about cars all the same time
the iDrive a 1959 speedster it's a replica built here in California by
vintage speedster and and the truth is probably if I had a real one I probably
wouldn't wouldn't go out so boldly driving it as I do now so it's it's
really a lot of fun to bring on these rallies and to take out in the streets
even getting gas you know people stop me wherever I go
it's a happy little car and makes people feel good and it makes me feel good to
know that people like it I think I want to build something that can really hope
it hopefully help us find a cure but my fear is that in my lifetime it's gonna
be very difficult for that to happen we give our funds currently both to the
Michael J Fox foundation and to the Parkinson's Institute and the reason why
I choose to do that is because I do believe in research I'm sad to think
that there may not be a cure in my lifetime so I'm very concerned with
people that are challenged by it so I really want to help raise funds for
patient care and I want to be able to help people along the way
I've always been a philanthropic person from the time I was child and I've
always been involved in things growing up you know working for causes being a
part of things and this is just the biggest one that I've been able to take
on and do this has really opened up doors to me for not just professional
people to meet along the way but for personal relationships and I think it's
just opened up my heart to be bigger so has it changed me I don't know that it's
changed me I as I said I think it's kind of enhanced the direction that that I
like to go
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