Forum Collaboration: Justin Wilson Charity Auction Tribute

[indy]

Just in case you have not seen, more than a few of the members here have gotten together to build a 1/18 diecast of Justin Wilson's 2009 Watkins Glen winner which was the first win for Dale Coyne Racing in their long history. Though this car is not yet built, the car is already up for auction on eBay and all proceeds go to the Wilson Children's Fund. You can check the auction status here:

Click here to view eBay Auction

Right now after a little over two days the auction sits at $930 and still growing. If you can afford to bid and help us raise more money for Justin's kids, God Bless. If that is out of your budget, consider one of these two following options.

1.) Donate directly to the Wilson Children's Fund

Wilson Children’s Fund
C/O INDYCAR
4551 West 16th Street
Indianapolis, IN 46222

2.) Several members have asked to help out and contribute money to help offset the costs of the build (donors, parts, shipping, etc). We have set up a Paypal account for those that want to donate to the forum's build. Please send money as a gift so there will no be Paypal fees. Funds can be sent to:

[e-mail]

We already have several members donating money or donating parts/time for free. When you donate money, you will get a link to see how the moneys are being handled. We will continue to be completely transparent with our handling of the donations. While the primary focus of this donation is to differ costs of the charity build, any excess money from the fundraiser will be donated to the Wilson Children's Fund.

In the next week or so the WIP of this build will be posted here on the forum. Then, about 2-3 weeks into September there will be another round of charity auctions on eBay from Graham Rahal's efforts (much like after Wheldon passed).

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or any other admin/moderator.
Jordan

[indy]

Tomorrow is the first anniversary of Justin Wilson's passing and I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of the final tally of our forum's part in the fund raising.

Of course there was Stu Benford's beautiful build of Justin's 2009 Watkins Glen winning car that appropriately now belongs to Dale Coyne. That car has special meaning for Mr. Coyne and DCR to represent their first win after competing in IndyCar for 25 years. Between the diecast conversion auction and forum donations we raised $1,600 for the Wilson Children's Fund which was a sum greater than I ever hoped for going into the project. We would be remiss to mention the other contributors and donators to the build: (alphabetically listed) Jordan Darwin, John Edwards, Paul Erlendson, Justin Lee, Craig Miller, Michael Peters, Michael Portaro, Calvin Sallee, Ralph Simpson, and Steve Turner. If you were on this list and were not able to download the thank you gift, please email me directly and I will get that to you. None of the conversion collaborators asked for reimbursement for their time, materials, postage, etc. so all money donated to defer the build costs were passed on the Wilson Children's Fund per the original announcement. 

Overall the auctions were a huge success:

A total of 509 different items were sold to raise a total of $546,967.49. The auction also generated significant and active bidding interest, with some 13,000 different bids. Additionally, private auctions of the helmets of Graham Rahal and Wilson teammate Ryan Hunter-Reay, as well as a private auction facilitated by Will Buxton, moved the total amount raised to $637,067.94.

Please do not send more donations to the above Paypal account, it is empty after the donation to the WCF and will be closed in short order. If you still want to do something for Justin's kids, you can still donate at wilsonchildrensfund.com/.

Thank you all for your help in this process, it is still one of my greatest memories of this forum. Godspeed JWil, we have missed you this year!

Jordan