PDA

View Full Version : Marines get helping hand from car club



thedrifter
10-01-09, 08:16 AM
October 1, 2009
Marines get helping hand from car club

By Darrell Clem
OBSERVER STAFF WRITER

A Canton-based classic car club has boxed up 92 boxes of goods to send to Marines fighting in Iraq.

America's Most Wanted Car Club of Canton has spent $2,000 for snacks, cough drops, books, magazines, toiletries — even a charcoal grill and utensils — that club members say will help troops and save on their out-of-pocket expenses.

“By doing this, we hope it makes them feel good and helps them out,” club President Ben Fontana said.

The car club, which draws members from Canton, Plymouth, Westland, Livonia, Redford, Garden City, Wayne and other communities, collected money by charging classic car entry fees during Canton's summer Liberty Fest, among other fund-raisers.

“We don't keep any of this money,” Fontana said. “Every penny gets used (for charity). The money is 100 percent donated.”

Club members took some of their fund-raising money and went shopping for everything from beef jerky to magazines to toothbrushes.

Last Sunday, they volunteered their time packing 92 boxes inside a Mill Street building in Plymouth that Fontana said is home to the VFW Mayflower Lt. Gamble Post 6695 and the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 528.

Club members worked on the project with Debbie Eichholtz, a Northville school paraprofessional who works with special-needs students and whose son, Marine Lance Cpl. Joseph Eichholtz, is stationed in the Japan area. She has helped send items to troops in Iraq for the last 18 months.

Eichholtz said the car club's items will be sent to a motor transport unit known as Truck Company Scavenger in the Fallujah area — a unit that cited a barbecue grill as its top request.

“That's the No. 1 thing they said they needed,” Eichholtz said, commending the car club for doing “an amazing job” collecting items for troops.

The car club has 50 members, and some of them are veterans themselves. The club formed about 19 years ago and has gained a reputation for raising money for charity.

Fontana said club members simply wanted to buy necessities that troops could use without spending their own money.

Meanwhile, the club is hopeful that a local business will volunteer to help them pay the cost of shipping the care packages to the troops. To help, call Fontana at (734) 355-6338.

dclem@hometownlife.com | (313) 222-2238

Ellie