TST's Coverage of The 4th Annual Sonic Meet, benefiting Make-A-Wish

[TROLL]

The 4th Annual Sonic Meet, benefiting Make-A-Wish


Photos by James Logue and Steven Cole
Words by Bryan Troll

The greatly anticipated 4th Annual Sonic Meet turned out to be the largest event in TST's history with an estimated 1000 cars in attendance. We were also able to raise a huge amount of money to donate to Make-A-Wish Foundation, but the final numbers won't be able to be released for another ~24 hours of writing this (the article will be updated as soon as it can).
(edit: The 4th Annual Sonic Meet raised $5,039.48 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation! Thank you so much to all of our awesome sponsors, Sonic of Morgantown, and to everyone who came out and contributed to an amazing day with 1,000 cars in attendance!)

After disappointing weather leading up to the originally planned date of the meet on April 25th, The Sonic Meet was pushed back to the rain date of May 2nd, and it turned out to be well worth the wait. The sun was out and the temperature rose above 80 degrees on the day of the meet with only a very brief sprinkle which didn't phase the huge crowds in attendance, many of which left the day with an unexpected sunburn.

Many of the generous event sponsors were in attendance with products and cars on display including a Lotus Elise, a built Mustang, the Fox Marketing Lexus IS-C and IS-F, some very nice BMWs, and of course the Rockstar truck which provided samples to everyone throughout the day. One of the highlights of the show was a white Nissan GT-R, complete with Endless brakes front and rear and BBS LM wheels, as well as a Ti exhaust and very sleek body kit that complimented the lines of the car beautifully.

Over 20 raffle prizes were donated and on display at the meet, and were very popular with meet attendees through the day with ticket entries being dropped into the raffle containers on a regular basis. When the winners were announced that afternoon, a couple dozen people walked away with some great prizes including dyno runs, alignments, window tinting, car parts, tickets to pro racing events, and more. One raffle winner let out an enthusiast yell as his ticket was announced, much to the crowds amusement.

The People's Choice contest started out slowly but picked up steam as the day went on and competition heated up, with the winner being TST's very own Dan Pancoast with his blue Toyota MR2.

There's really no way to express the size of this meet to those who weren't there. It completely overtook the lot next to Sonic as well as just about every other parking lot in the huge shopping complex, spreading much farther and wider than many hanging out near Sonic even realized. There were many excited comments at the meet and afterwards saying that this was the biggest meet some have ever been to, and the best, and already asking about the plan for next year. We're so glad to hear that attendees enjoyed themselves, and that really shows how big of a success the day was all around.

Thank you so much to Sonic Drive-In for working with us over the past few months to make sure the meet was a success, and thank you to all of the amazing volunteers who contributed to helping to bring this event together.

All proceeds from the event will be donated to Make-A-Wish, and we are very anxious to announce the total amount we'll be able to donate which will hopefully happen tomorrow. (edit: The 4th Annual Sonic Meet raised $5,039.48 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation!!!).
Make-A-Wish informed me that 100% of the donation will go toward wishes, none of it will go toward administrative or operating costs which is great to hear since that is not common among charitable organizations. They also said that based on the average cost of a wish in their region, we were able to donate 1 1/2 wishes to them! This is pretty incredible and really puts things into perspective on things; it should make everyone involved feel great about their participation in the event knowing they were able to make a full wish come true for a very deserving child, plus more. We're hoping to stay in touch with Make-A-Wish and hear from them about a wish they were able to grant as a result of The Sonic Meet this year.

The donations came by way of raffle ticket purchases and people's choice award voting from those attending the meet, as well as 25% of TST sales being donated and 10% of Sonic sales being donated. We also had some very generous meet sponsors who made donations to Make-A-Wish to support the meet and enable us to really collect substantial donations.

We are so happy that the local auto community was able to come together for such a great cause, and do something positive while enjoying a great day together, and are very much looking forward to The 5th Annual Sonic Meet next year!

Thank you to the following event sponsors:
Good Vibes Autosport - www.gvautosport.com
Shades Of Gray Window Tinting - www.shadesofgraytint.com
Autocouture Motoring - www.autocouturemotoring.com
Bimmerworks - www.bimmerworks.com
Eurowerkz - www.eurowerkz.com
Bavarian Solutions - www.bavariansolutions.com
Rockstar Energy Drink - www.rockstar69.com
Krazy House Customs - www.krazyhousecustoms.com
Extreme PSI - www.extremepsi.com
Bonehead Performance - www.boneheadperformance.com
Sparx Auto - www.sparxauto.com
Verocious Motorsports - www.verociousmotorsports.com

And to our raffle donors:
Shades of Gray – www.shadesofgraytint.com
Verocious Motorsports – www.verociousmotorsports.com
Rockstar Energy Drink – www.rockstar69.com
Good Vibes Autosport – www.gvautosport.com
JSC Speed – www.jscspeed.com
JM Fabrications – www.jmfabrications.com
R/T Tuning – www.rttuning.com
Mishimoto – www.mishimoto.com
TriStateTuners – www.tristatetuners.com
Liquid Powder Coats – www.liquidpowdercoats.com
Yonaka Motorsports – www.yonaka.com
NJ Motorsports Park – www.njmotorsportspark.com
Redline Time Attack – www.redlinetimeattack.com
Mid Atlantic Grand Prix – www.midatlanticgrandprix.com
Trenton Thunder Baseball – www.trentonthunder.com
Camden Riversharks Baseball – www.riversharks.com
Franklin Institute – www2.fi.edu
Bucks County River Country – www.rivercountry.net
Computer Recycler of East PA

Here are a some photos from the show, but to see the FULL GALLERY, click here!



























































Here are a few photos from the show, but to see the FULL GALLERY, click here!

edit: 5/24/10.
Got a nice letter from Make A Wish that I wanted to share with everyone. This only referenced the donation jar at the event, not the total amount that we raised, but there's a very nice story in here about one of the "wish kids."

[gtsiawd96]

Great Write up Bryan!! What a fun day. Got to meet some people I have only talked to online before and becuase this was so huge I missed some people I really wanted to meet also. But all in all my 5 and half hour road trip drive was totally worth it. Can't wait for next year

That aerial shot is awesome.

[assault187]

Great event, great coverage! Def worth the trip out, I'll be looking forward to next year!

[sleepersatty99]

What a great write up. I Am glad that things worked out for you guys and girls. I cant wait to see how much you guys raised. I'm sorry i wasnt able to attened but i had baseball games with my kids. Maybe next year. But Great work to Bryan and everyone who helped out.

[Maxxdsix]

That aerial shot is awsome!

[rllyrckt]

AWESOME pics!!!! it was so great being there

[Mishimoto]

Who else got a nice sun burn while hanging out at the meet! I know I did! haha

[gtsiawd96]

Who stopped at Walgreens on the ride home and picked up "after sun Aloe"?....... raises hand

[Mishimoto]

^^ LOL... more like, who spent all their money on things at the Make A Wish raffle, so they had to go to their parents house and steal the "After Sun Aloe" from the bathroom cabinet........*raises hand*

[Sublime1304]

awesome pics! the show was great and a lot of nice people with nice cars came out. im def coming next year

[Maxxdsix]

Originally Posted by Mishimoto

^^ LOL... more like, who spent all their money on things at the Make A Wish raffle, so they had to go to their parents house and steal the "After Sun Aloe" from the bathroom cabinet........*raises hand*

lol i spent all my money on the raffle and told my parents to give me some cuz it was for a donation to make a wish :D

Nice sunburn and sunglasses tan for me lol

[Sublime1304]

this was my first time so i enjoyed it a lot. i got burned pretty bad myself. i put all my tickets towards the window tint lol. i needed it

[blackvr4]

my question is, how the hell did you guys get a satalite pic of the event?

[gtsiawd96]

^Bryan hacked into the NSA's sat and gotta good pic. lol

Acutally, I think someone gotta a ride in one of the airplanes that were taking off and landing across the street.

[DPancoast]

helloooo new avatar! thanks steven. great pics guys!

[DGspoolin]

this was my first TST meet let me tell you you guys do it big lol I have never seen that many cars in one place in my life had so much fun and while trying to keep from drewling over these sick rides... inspired me to go get a part time job on top of my full time job so i can afford to do stuff to my car.... she will be lowered by the end of the month cant wait.....lolm thanks guys cant wait til next year

[boostedshoe]

first post here! you got a great pic of my car in this thread, so you left me no choice!!! it was a privilege to be a part of it...great bunch of people, great cars, and a great cause...u can't beat that! i look forward to your next event and bs'ing cars w/ anyone on here. Lata!

one more thing...why's it say 'Noob-Jersey' under my screen name? haaaaaaaa...SNOOKIE.

[srtwantabe]

ya words can not describe this meet im glad somebody got an aerial shot i heard someone talkin bout tryin to get it

[civichx97]

this was a really fun meet, most amazing one I've ever been to, the pics are awesome and that aerial one.....just, WOW.

[howielong]

Originally Posted by DPancoast

helloooo new avatar! thanks Steven. great pics guys!

I need to buy some new camera gear now