EP 1 – How Carfest Is Rebuilding Lives—One Vehicle at a Time

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hi I’m Zach the nonprofit guy welcome back to Beyond Giving the best nonprofit

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podcast on the Boost Network sponsored by Nonprofits HQ and the Boost this week

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we’ve got a really exciting conversation with Andrew from the Community of

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Automotive Professionals which puts on the big Carfest event each year so

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Andrew kind of tell us a little bit about yourself and about what the

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community of automotive professionals is awesome zack first thanks for having me

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on super excited uh no pressure with that intro or anything uh no community

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of automotive professionals is made up of individuals and garages across our

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area that come together to put on Carfest which is our festival our annual

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festival which this year happens to be April 4th through the 6th 2025 at the

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Freeman Expo Halls and essentially we come together put on Carfest and we’re

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rebuilding lives as we rebuild vehicles for those in need awesome and so um how

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did you like what is your background i know you work at a garage as well right

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uh like automotive repair garage what is your background and how did that kind of

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lead you into the community of automotive professionals and Carfest

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great question well first you don’t want me working on your car

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i grew up marketing guy right that’s right uh I grew up on a ranch uh raising

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horses and cows and so I could be a pretty okay shade tree mechanic uh but I

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wouldn’t I wouldn’t trust me on your everyday vehicle uh but no that

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background you know growing up farming and ranching uh I actually worked in

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agriculture for a big part of my career uh started off working for Texas Beef

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Council we did the Beef It’s What’s for Dinner campaign oh okay uh loved it so

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Sam Elliot was the big boy voice for a long time beef It’s What’s for dinner uh

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enjoyed it worked with 5,000 cattle producers across the state uh from there

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I got to move on and work for Certified Heroford Beef uh we’re the branded

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program for American Herford Association uh essentially we went headtohead if

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you’ve heard certified Angus and those type things uh worked with 7,000 cattle

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producers across the country uh was super blessed to grow that program uh

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based out of Kansas City got to launch programs all over the world guatemala

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Panama Peru Colombia Hong Kong Japan uh Mexico it was just it was amazing time

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um wife and I found out we were uh going to be blessed with a little boy and

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wanted to get closer back to family and less travel uh ended up finding a job at

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Santos Enterprises in Santikos Entertainment here in San Antonio uh so

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it was it was an amazing ride uh the best chance happen stance that could

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happen uh spent seven years there finished off my career as a chief

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marketing officer there uh when I moved back to San Antonio I was actually you

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know it’s a good Texas story as you like to say walking out of the rodeo and saw

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Pam Kol um Pam introduced me to Mark we ended up changing numbers learned about

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Carfest started volunteering i’ve been a volunteer for what’s soon to be uh eight

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out of our 10 years because it’s our 10 year anniversary coming up and uh yeah

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about 160 days ago 170 days ago uh I was blessed to start leading the Carfest

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team and putting on this festival awesome and and you know you mentioned

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that I call that such a Texas story because it is right you’re like I was

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leaving the rodeo and now I run one of the biggest automotive events in San

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Antonio right that’s that’s so that’s so cool so Texas and so what is your role

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at Carfest and what does that look like for you so role at Carfest really

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director so we are we’re putting all the pieces in uh together carfest has

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several different uh committees so we have a volunteer and community committee

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we have a repair and parts committee uh we have our community committee that’s

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putting on all the activities we have our garage committee and so there’s

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several different committees just like anything where it takes you know it

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takes a village to make this thing run and what I’ve really been focusing on

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this year is one attendance and then number two getting the right people in

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the right places to make this thing grow uh as we are in our 10th year uh and our

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10th anniversary coming up for Carfest San Antonio uh we have some big

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ambitions we want to take this thing nationwide we want to be able to go to

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an Atlanta a Houston a Las Vegas uh and it’s going to take the right leadership

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and the right people which I’m pretty excited because we’re getting that set

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and that’s to say there’s a lot of people that have been with Carfest since

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the very beginning that 2016 year who are still on and and you know they’re

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they’re teaching us every day and they’re coming along for the ride so we

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have such a good mix we’re just excited for our sponsors you know we got to give

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a shout out to our big anchor sponsors they’ve been with us forever our

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O’Reillys of the world our BG products Red Mcomes uh we can’t do it without

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them they’re just they’re fantastic that’s awesome and so they’re like big

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plans for the future of Carfest then right huge huge plans uh you know we

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typically average 40 50,000 people a year uh this year we got a little bit of

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competition with the final four but that didn’t change our goal we’re going for a

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100,000 people 100,000 let’s get it done let’s get it done nice that’s awesome

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and so like what can you expect when you attend Carfest like as an attendee what

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can I expect to do and see while I’m there yeah so if you’re coming to

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Carfest we like to say we have a little bit of everything for everybody uh if

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you’re coming to just have some fun and cut loose escape reality for a little

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bit we have something for you we’re going to have over 200 vendors uh we’re

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going to have things for the families we have lots of activities for the kiddos

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so bring the family out we’re going to have bounce houses laser tag Nerf gun

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wars you name it uh we’re going to have a car show so you want to show off that

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special ride you got enter our car show um we’re going to have different

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activities up on the main stage but one of the coolest things we do uh because

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we repair those vehicles and donate them back to families in need but we also

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repair vehicles and then we just donate them and and for free it’s a free raffle

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i don’t know how a better way to say it it is a free drawing for a car and so

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you can come and each day we’re going to give five cars five on Saturday and five

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on Sunday you can just come register and try to win a car and take it home we

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cover tax time on license we cover it all so I can just attend this event and

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win a car so how much do tickets cost to attend Carfest carfest is totally free

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um the only thing we don’t control just full transparency parking uh that’s

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controlled by the counting sometimes it’s 10 15 20 bucks uh but our event is

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free you can come you’ll want a little cash there’s food trucks we have 10 to

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12 food trucks we have a variety between drinks and burgers and Asian and

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Filipino um and so yeah you know if you’re a food enthusiast come on out

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have some good food um there’s some vendors there they’re selling all kinds

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of cool stuff there’s samples um so yeah just bring a little cash but the actual

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event you want to come hang out and try to win a car that’s free cool and so I

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want to touch back a little bit on the kind of purpose you had said that you’re

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rebuilding vehicles to help rebuild lives right that’s such a powerful

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statement but what does that actually mean so you’re taking vehicles that are

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donated and then like like I guess just kind of expand on that yeah no so it’s

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super crazy so our mission is unity in the community and so we work with

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nonprofits throughout the year and then we have a nomination process and

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um what we’re looking for is that family that’s struggling um you know they have

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a job or they have a job and they’re going to school they have a job they’re

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going to school and they’re trying to support their kids or they’re trying to

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help their parents or they’re trying to help aunts and uncles and grandparents

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and so what we do is we work with our fellow nonprofits and say “Hey first

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identify some families you know that are in need that are struggling and they’re

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trying um tell us a little bit about that vehicle tell us how this vehicle

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could change their life help them.” Um and then we look at it and we go through

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our garage pool and we pair them up and so they come together uh we look at the

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vehicle we diagnose it we submit our parts orders to the O’Reillys

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uh Jasper transmission engines they’re another anchor and we basically go

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bumperto-bumper and repair that vehicle to make it 100% 100% sound for the road

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wow we have reliable transportation so these are cars that are donated from

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various sources in various different conditions you guys bring them in you

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diagnose them you repair them for these families that uh are in need so a lot

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most of the time they already have the vehicle okay and so we’re repairing

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their vehicle to get them back on the road what was a new part this year which

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is really cool is we are taking vehicle donations uh we’ve heard from so many

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that are in these different nonprofits that they’re walking several miles maybe

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through a bad part of town uh they’re they’re they’re walking late at night to

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a job or back home or maybe they’re in a program where they’ve aged out of foster

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care and they’re kind of in between and they’re trying to get to job interviews

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so we are now taking uh car donations and we’re rebuilding some of those and

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we’re going to repurpose them throughout the community as well so that’s a super

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cool aspect and then the other one the first time ever this year we’re actually

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taking nonprofit vehicles and we’re repairing those uh and that’s because we

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heard from the community um this surprised me i went to a meeting a

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couple months ago and the transportation budget for grants and funds that are

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divvied out from cities and counties is less than 10% wow really a lot of those

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have stipulations now that if you get grants you can’t use it for

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transportation not to buy a vehicle or vehicle repairs and so we’ve run into

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organizations a great partner now Beat AIDS uh they had a a big red Clifford

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that’s Clifford baby the big red van Clifford uh which we’re able to repair

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and get back on the road and what that does is and so we we never want to lose

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that family aspect we’re going to keep taking nominations and keep helping

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those but what a vehicle like Clifford does is allow us to go out and touch

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multiple families right and so using again Unity in the Community we’re

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helping that organization which is helping multiple families across our

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community and so that’s a new aspect to us that we’re pretty excited about yeah

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that’s really cool and you know that’s such a need in San Antonio specifically

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to for these repairs because vehicle repairs are not cheap right a large

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portion of the population in San Antonio lives at or below the poverty line and

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public transit is not robust enough to actually provide those people accessible

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ways to work you know for example in District 4 like the south side of San

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Antonio um you might walk 30 40 50 minutes to to get to the closest bus

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stop from where you are and then spend an hour or two hours on the bus trying

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to get to work so the fact that you’re able to take these vehicles that they

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wouldn’t necessarily be able to afford and that that’s your focus that’s a

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really cool mission thank you that’s really cool mission um so along the

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lines of kind of that goal what is your most what is the most exciting part for

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working on Carfest or like what you get to do for Carfest what is that for you

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so for me personally and I think this goes for the team now it it really is

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the impact of seeing the change it’s making in the lives of the repairs it

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It’s also really exciting so when they come and register for this vehicle so

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when you come to Carfest and sign up those those tickets are going in a big

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hopper and that’s exciting because all of a sudden there’s a name being drawn

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and you see that excitement those people are I mean they’re chest bumping Dave

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Elder and they’re doing high fives and that’s super exciting but we revamped

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that nomination process this year and we were really reading the impact

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statements and and how this repair would change those lives and for it was the

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hardest thing I’ve ever done first so reading through all these we’re

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immediately thinking how do we find 64 garages h how do we go to O’Reilly and

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our friends and be like we need more parts like we got to we got because

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every one of them was deserving and so it was super hard and so what I’m most

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excited about this year is seeing those impact statements come to life through

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the repairs and I cannot thank our garages enough uh there’s so many we’re

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gonna I’d love to toss them over to you but our garages it doesn’t happen

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without them and I’m most excited to see that come to life so how does that how

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does that happen and you know the the challenge of of selecting the limited

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number of families you’re able to help like that is like the that’s the

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challenge that change makers all over have right they’re like “Okay I want to

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help everybody everybody on this list should help.” And so like trying to

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whittle that down and and and select that’s a really hard process and I

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imagine your selection team like like it was they struggled with that probably

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trying to identify those um those families that get to participate in in

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this repair program there was there wasn’t a dry eye like we could not it

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was tearful because you couldn’t help all of them and then you’re reading some

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of these impact statements is that we literally I’m not I’m man I cried like

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that’s how much it it that’s how hard it was and how how much we poured our heart

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into this and knowing that they poured their heart into it and we’re not going

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to be able to help everybody that we flat out cried in that room i believe it

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yeah and so you have you do 25 we’re going to do 20 this year 20 so 20

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vehicles so you’re you’re making that impact in 20 families and you get to see

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that kind of impact statement come to life right uh how does that work with

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the garages right so a car comes to you are you like are there certain types of

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repairs that you do and certain things that you kind of don’t touch or do you

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like what does that process from end to end look like yeah great question so we

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partnered with the garages this year we’re hosting our ever our first ever

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pairing party okay so in the past real quick the process was okay uh you got

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selected we need you to get your car over to the garage the garage is going

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to look at it uh then the garage is going to work on any big stuff and then

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they’ll take it to Carfest and kind of finish off the repairs uh oh so you so

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you’ll actually get to see some work being done on these cars at Carfest

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actionpacked like two days very cool every Saturday and Sunday the cars will

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move in friday there’s a little bit of work but there’s a lot of prep uh and

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then Saturday and Sunday man it is just it’s 24 hours and they’re just turning

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wrenches it’s fun um this year we changed it up so we’re getting the cars

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a little earlier to the garages the week of like March 14th um and that’s because

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we’ve asked the nonprofits to come along with those nominees this time and we

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said “Hey this is tough they’re going to be without a vehicle for three to four

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weeks uh we already know they’re struggling so help us help them but we

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guarantee when they get this car back it’s going to be reliable.” Most of

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these cars are having 10 20 $25,000 worth of work done wow and is that all

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donated parts and labor all donated parts and labor these garages are not

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they’re not paying their people for it they are donating their time talents and

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treasures those parts from our partners like Jasper and BG and O’Reillys and Red

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Mcomes they’re donating um and so this year what we did is hey we’re going to

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get those cars in we’re going to run through a diagnostic on them and then

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the families and nonprofits are going to come and sit with that garage and look

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at the repair plan say hey this is what you told us was going on this is what we

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actually found and so these are the parts orders we’re putting into our

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partners and this is if this you were going to have to pay for this this is

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what it would be uh and then we’ve asked them to come back to Carfest and hang

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out with the garage just give them some high fives cheer them on a little bit if

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you want to do some social media we’d love that tag that garage and then uh

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this year everybody’s heard of the ceremonial ribbon cutting uh we’re going

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to have a key ceremony cool right after Carfest we’re going to we’re going to

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take a couple of days we know everybody’s going to want their car back

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and but we’re going to come back to the garage we’ll have a key ceremony again

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we’ll do some high fives and that’s so cool so they so they get the key to

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their repaired car that happened through Carfest and they’ll be able to drive

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away from there with this perfectly working car to help them that’s amazing

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that’s such a cool uh that’s such a cool thing and so these pairing parties so

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what does that look like and what kind of happens there so this will be our

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first one ever uh we’re pretty excited for it it’s the first time the garages

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are going to meet the nonprofits and the families they’re they’re benefiting oh

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cool uh and that’s to build that camaraderie like hey we’re going to take

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care of you’re you’re going to bring your car to us and we’re going to take

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care of it like it’s our own and for that family just to be able to see the

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garage cares and for the garage to see the family they’re benefiting and the

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nonprofit they’re benefiting um and we’re going to have some fun trivia so

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we’re gonna have some things laid out around the table as the people come in

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they’re start trying to pair up who they think’s going to work with who uh we’re

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gonna have a fun kind of guess who game where we’ll call them up and then we’re

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going to take some pictures and hang out and yeah then we’re going to just have

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some camaraderie it is going to be at Andreddy’s this year shout out to our

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friends at Andredddies for hooking us up because at the end we’re going to have a

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little competition and a go-kart race nice that’ll be pretty fun yeah cool so

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there’s a lot of things that kind of happen not just at the event that kind

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of happen around the event to support the things that that are actually

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happening these vehicle repairs and all these different things how do you pay

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for all of this how do you fund CarFest and the things that kind of happen

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around that great question so it’s all been through private donors uh and we’re

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always looking for more so between sponsorships private donors uh we’re

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like any other nonprofit we’re looking for we’re looking we’re looking for help

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uh like I said we have some great anchors with Jasper and BG and

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O’Reilly’s and Red Mcomes uh we have some new sponsors this year we’re pretty

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excited about uh we haven’t even touched on CareerFest and how we help those

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seniors at tech schools try to get jobs uh we’re implementing a high school

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portion this year working with our friend Dr goodllo uh there’s a lot of

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cool stuff that’s happen we’re going to have a Friday night fights friday night

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fights what is that dude we’re going to have an MMA fight friday night of caring

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you’re going to have an MMA fight at Carfest on Friday night at Carfest

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Friday night outside Friday Night Lights so bring it we’re going to have hot rods

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uh Friday Night Lights is always big it brings its own crowd we’re like man we

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need something inside the sponsors of vendors Friday night everybody’s hanging

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outside food trucks are hopping there’s music and so we’re like well we found a

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we found a connection they got I have an octagon like I know some guys let’s have

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an MMA fight let’s have an MMA fight so we’re going to have three to four round

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or three to four matches uh 7 to 9:00 Friday night we’re going to have MMA

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fight that’s awesome and is that an add-on or is that included in admission

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to the event included admission it’s free and again it’s thanks to our

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private donors we’re always looking for more what also helps you mentioned it

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earlier is that car donation program so when those card don uh donations come in

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uh what we ask through our through our form and you can find our form at

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carfestsa.org or um is hey do you want that car to go to something or uh do you

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have something in mind sometimes we’ll evaluate the car and if it’s if it’s too

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much to try to fix it what we can do is sell that car and then those funds go

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into help and run our mission okay um if it’s not too much then and it’s a good

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candidate uh then we can repair that car and then save it as a giveaway or donate

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it to a family that’s awesome yeah so there’s there you’re finding creative

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ways to kind of fund all of this impact that that you folks are working on so

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you mentioned briefly CareerFest what is that who participates in it what’s it

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for so CareerFest happens over in Expo Hall 2 and that is for again that’s to

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help our community of automotive professionals so there is a lot of young

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people that come uh young and old you know some people go into programs like

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SEI and STV and they’re looking for a career change and so what they’re doing

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is they’re getting ready to graduate and so they’re looking for a job in their

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new field in automotive and so we’re pairing them to go do interviews uh with

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O’Reillies of the world Advance the Independent Garages that are

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participating all get to interview wow people and we have I can’t even you know

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Cambridge Auto is a great partner in the past two years they’ve hired five

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mechanics each that’s crazy just from CareerFest just from CareerFest so 10 in

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two years they’ve hired um you know we have other great uh uh technical schools

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too uh TSTC comes down and helps UTI uh St phillips Alamo Colleges there is

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something really cool this year that SDVT is doing uh that people need to

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check this out this called Wrench Wars wrench wars that sounds exciting it is

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exciting sdvt is taking uh their leadership and their kids but they’re

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challenging the garages so the garages are going to submit kind of their their

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best person and we’re going to have kind of a pit crew wars okay yeah you got to

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get the tire off you got to go get it balanced get it back on timing think of

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March Madness style i mean we are going headtohead with Final Four uh Giga

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Maggis um and then you know we’ll time it and then we’re going to have a really

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good prize for the winner that’s really cool and so will attendees be able to

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kind of see these different mechanics competing and they’ll they’ll happen in

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these garages and or the the bays there at the event or Exactly so they’re going

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to get to see it we’re going to do a call out for the finals like hey this is

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kind of the final two competitions winner takes all uh they’ll get to watch

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it they’ll get to see it we’re going to be streaming some of it online for the

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people that can’t make it but it’s We’re really excited this will be the first

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year for Wrench Wars wow that’s so cool and so you have all of these things you

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have career fest you have your MMA fights you’ve got all these vendors

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you’ve got the bays where the repairs are happening on these cars for these

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families so many areas and of impact how do you put it all together how do you

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like coordinate all the chaos to make this a successful event uh again it’s a

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team uh you know my partner in crime Selene Trevinho she is freaking awesome

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uh I can’t give a enough shoutouts and goodwill to all of our volunteers uh it

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really is a team and when I say team it it goes to the garages as well the

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garages the nonprofits the people leading our nonprofits the people

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leading our volunteers it t it takes volunteers to get volunteers absolutely

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uh and that has been so huge getting the right people in the right places this

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year i want to give them all a shout out but I’m afraid I’ll miss some i just

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want our volunteers to know that I love them and we couldn’t do this without

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them uh we couldn’t do it without our garages it starts there in those bays if

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there’s not a garage willing to step up saying “Hey I’ll do that repair.” Then

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this event doesn’t happen absolutely yeah and so you know along those lines

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involvement from the community whether it’s like new garages or new shops or

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new volunteers like what how how important is the support from the

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community for Carfest and what do you guys need like what does Carfest still

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need from the community to uh make it happen so the biggest thing we can ask

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the community is we need your we need your feet and your eyeballs so come out

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to the event so uh 50,000 people is amazing if we can get 75 to 100,000

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people to come out over three days then that makes our vendors feel good feel

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good that makes our sponsors feel good that makes us feel good that makes our

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garages feel good we’ve revamped it if you’ve been to Carfest which we have a

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lot of people that come year after year you’re going to see a different look

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we’re We’ve reshuffled the garages to allow them to get more flow and people

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through uh we’ve reshuffled the stages to allow more activity and so just bring

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your eyeballs bring your feet get ready to have a good time that’s the biggest

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way you can support us that’s awesome so come out here enjoy this free event

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possibly win a car and just by doing that you’re you’re really kind of

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elevating and supporting the event that’s that’s amazing we have 200 plus

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vendors 200 vendors so if you come out and hang out visit with the vendors

24:06

visit with our garages the people helping put this on that’s the biggest

24:10

support they can do right now that’s awesome and so beyond beyond just

24:15

attending like what are some of the big needs that that that you have for

24:18

Carfest uh still some of the big need we’re still looking for volunteers

24:21

volunteers so you can go to carfestsa.org you can go to our

24:24

volunteer button fill out that uh it’s a application it’s a it’s a short form

24:30

that allows us to contact you and then ask where you would like to help we have

24:33

tons of areas where people can help uh of course donations are still huge so

24:38

you go to carfestsa.org you can hit that donate button uh we we pay for a lot of

24:43

systems lighting electricity the rental uh we do compensate the fighters and

24:49

stuff like that uh so there’s still a lot of expenses that go into Carfest um

24:54

even though we have amazing sponsors and we do I didn’t even mention our new

24:58

sponsor for MMA’s Beluga Air the Beluga Air Brawls nice uh we have a new driver

25:04

program so if you’re 15 to 17 years old we need more people to sign up for this

25:09

wait what is this new driver program this is another area of impact from this

25:13

event it’s another area of impact so if you’re 15 to 17 come hang out take a

25:18

2-hour course uh we partner with SAPD and put on this safety course and it is

25:24

25 bucks just to cover some of the miscellaneous costs we have in in

25:27

brochures and stuff like that uh but then you’re entered to win a free car

25:31

and again we cover tax title and license uh we’re doing 100 on Saturday and 100

25:36

on Sunday so you have a one in a 100 chance to win a car um so yeah we’re

25:41

we’re still in need we’ll take cars we take cash help us change the world cars

25:46

cash people change the world that’s it cars cash people i like that that works

25:51

awesome and then so moving forward like the future of Carfest i know you

25:56

mentioned like moving it to other cities and and things like that what are the

26:00

the biggest things in the future of Carfest and what are you most excited

26:03

about in in that future uh I’m really excited about uh that the word has

26:08

already gotten out we’ve had a couple of cities actually reach out to us and say

26:11

“Hey how do we do Carfest here uh so working with our volunteer team now

26:16

we’ve actually picked your brain.” Uh you know how do we mold this playbook

26:20

and how do we create this playbook through our different committees where

26:24

we can say “Hey here’s what you need here’s how you get the people here’s the

26:28

technology.” And then even what you and I have talked about how do you scale it

26:31

so if a city wants to start small and then get big you know in 2016 where we

26:36

started we filled up you know 10 now we’re at 20ome garages uh so how do we

26:41

build that playbook and and scalability where a city wants to jump in maybe it’s

26:45

a Waco hey I I want to start with five and I want to do a Carfest for a day or

26:49

a day and a half or two days and we’re going to build that playbook and we’re

26:53

going to we’re going to be able to franchise this thing and take it across

26:55

the country that’s amazing imagine how many lives you’ll be able to touch

26:59

through these events like you know the impact of what you do in San Antonio

27:03

imagine when there’s a Dallas a Houston a New York an LA like all over the

27:08

country right the thousands of people that you’ll be able to have a positive

27:11

impact on that’s that’s such an amazing thing if I wasn’t you’d see the

27:15

goosebumps if I was in an long sleeve that just gave me goosebumps thinking

27:18

about that that’s amazing that is so cool and so people can learn more about

27:23

Carfest at carfestsa.org um and you’re available on

27:26

socials as well we are available on all the socials so find us on Instagram

27:30

Facebook Tik Tok seline does an incredible job on on all of our digital

27:34

platforms so yeah and and when is the event the event this year is April 4th

27:39

through the 6th 2025 Freeman Expo Hall awesome and it’s free to the community

27:43

free well thank you so much for joining us today Andrew it was amazing chatting

27:47

with you and learning about Carfest and all the amazing things you’re doing um

27:51

thanks for everybody that tunes in uh you know these episodes are only

27:56

possible because of the change makers in the community that we talk to that

27:59

really are making a positive impact um again this was Beyond Giving the best

28:04

nonprofit show on the Boost Network sponsored by Nonprofits HQ and the Boost

28:08

thanks