By AUBRIE GEORGE | The Moorestown Sun
Four Moorestown residents packed their bags last weekend and made sure their gas tanks were full before jumping in their Subarus and hitting the road to raise money for the American Cancer Society.
Erik Matthews, Aaron Himelright, Aaron Price and T.J. Barling, all Moorestown residents, joined about 100 participants in 52 cars for a caravan from Cherry Hill to Burlington, Vt. during the ninth annual 48 Hours of Tristate Drive.
The annual event brings Subaru enthusiasts from across the country to join in an effort to raise money for charity while enjoying a scenic, three-day drive through back roads and highways between New Jersey and Vermont.
The drive was scheduled to kick off on Friday from Subaru of America headquarters in Cherry Hill and drivers were scheduled to reach Vermont that night.
On Saturday, the group was scheduled to tour Vermont Sportscar Facility and then head on a back-roads caravan to Dunhams Bay Resort in Lake George, N.Y.. via the Adirondack Mountains. The drive was scheduled to culminate on Sunday with a closing dinner in Bethel, Conn.
Each year, participants try to raise more money than the year before. This year’s goal was to top the $25,500 participants brought in last year through fund raising, donations and a matching donation from Subaru of America for up to $7,000.
As of last Friday, the event’s Web site, www.48hrs.info, showed the donation total was over $22,300 — $15,000 from drivers’ fund raising and $7,000 from Subaru’s matching donation.
Participants had up until two weeks after the event to bring in money, event founder and organizer Chris Torricelli said.
Torricelli, who has been running the drive since 2002, said it has evolved a great deal since it started.
”We started with five cars and we did like 1,500 miles in two days,” Torricelli said. “Now it’s evolved to 50 cars and we do about 1,000 miles in three days.”
Torricelli said the drive has also grown from raising about $1,000 in its first year and has stuck with donating to the American Cancer Society for the past several years.
“We’ve developed a really good relationship with the American Cancer Society,” Torricelli said. “It’s kind of universal, everybody knows somebody who has had cancer or who has cancer. So it’s got a very wide appeal.”
Matthews, whose mother is a cancer survivor, said the fund-raising aspect of the drive encouraged him to join.
“I’m a car fan but, also, my mom had fought off cancer,” Matthews said. “So when I found out the proceeds were going to the American Cancer Society I jumped right on.”
Matthews asked Himelright, a fellow car fan, to join him and the two decided to team up and drive together in Matthews’ 1999 Subaru Impreza. They also found Price and Barling, former Moorestown High School students who had participated in last year’s drive, and decided to room together during the trip.
This will be Matthews’ first year participating in the drive. He said he is most looking forward to touring the Vermont Sportscar Facility on Saturday.
“One of the stops we make is at Vermont Motor Sports — they build rally cars there, that’s one of the big stops,” Matthews said.
Matthews’ mother, Fran Rabchuk, thought her son and the three other Moorestown residents deserved recognition for taking the time to raise money for charity.
“I know part of this is the lure of the road rally,” Rabchuk said. “But to take the time to raise the money for the American Cancer Society — I’m a cancer survivor and our family has lost many family members to cancer — I just think they need mention and need to be commended on a job well done.”
For more information on the 48 Hours of Tristate Drive, visit the event’s Web site, www.48hrs.info.
