Barrett-Jackson accelerates its first yearlong charity initiative, which raises funds and awareness for heart disease and stroke, during the Palm Beach Auction held April 12-15 at the South Florida Fairgrounds.
The campaign, titled “Driven Hearts” and spearheaded by Carolyn Jackson, the auction company’s vice president of Brand Strategy and the wife of chairman Craig Jackson, is the latest in the longtime series of charitable events and on-the-block auction sales that have become signature features of Barrett-Jackson auctions.
Driven Hearts was unveiled during the Scottsdale sale in January and included the emotional multiple sales and re-donations of the Jacksons’ own 35th anniversary Chevrolet Corvette.
“The recent passing of our good friend Dave Ressler inspired Carolyn and me to donate our 35th Anniversary Corvette he once gifted to my mom, Nellie, and me,” Craig Jackson said in a news release. “We auctioned it in Scottsdale to honor the memory of Dave as well as Greg Mauzy, two great members of the collector car community gone too soon.
“We are grateful for the more than $350,000 raised in Scottsdale, along with the tremendous support on social media to help raise awareness. We are fully dedicated to this campaign and excited for Palm Beach to be our next stop in this fight against heart disease.”
In Scottsdale, the Corvette was won at auction and donated back two times. Not only were the winning bidders inspired to re-donate the car, Texas couple Darrell and Charmaigne Pullen were so moved while watching the charity sale on TV that they flew to Arizona and donated their own and matching 35th anniversary Corvette to be auctioned for the heart-and-stroke initiative.
That matching pair will be staged together at the 16th annual Palm Beach auction, with all proceeds benefiting Driven Hearts.
“The collector car community has the biggest heart for supporting organizations dedicated to making our world a better, healthier place,” Carolyn Jackson said in the release. “It was a tremendous honor to host Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, in Scottsdale as we kicked off our Driven Hearts campaign, and we are overwhelmed by the incredible generosity of our bidders in Scottsdale, as well as the Pullens for donating their personal car to support this tremendous cause.”
Marketing efforts for the Driven Hearts will include stroke-awareness signage around the venue promoting FAST, the AHA’s acronym for Facial drooping, Arm tingling, Speech impairment, Time to call 911.
A new Barrett-Jackson commemorative license plates that spell out DRIVEN will be available for sale, and Craig Jackson’s own 2008 Bugatti Veyron will be shown wrapped in red-and-silver #DrivenHearts livery, which was a photo-op favorite in Scottsdale.
For information about the Palm Beach auction and the Driven Hearts campaign, visit the Barrett-Jackson website.
