MUSKEGON COUNTY, Mich. — A one-of-a-kind car show with a cause prompted thousands to descend upon a Muskegon County parking lot this Labor Day.
The event marked the 18th year of Muskegon's ‘Labor Day Cars for Cancer,’ yet its mission remained as powerful as ever.
Old school met new school on the blacktop in Fruitport on Monday, September 5, at the Lakes Mall.
Amid the sea of iconic vehicles, however, a very different kind of American muscle was on display.
“When we first heard about it, it was just terrible,” Ron and Janille Ferrier said. “They found out right away it was a rare tumor.”
Revealed with a CT scan, doctors diagnosed their granddaughter with a rare form of cancer.
She was just two-years-old when she went under the knife for a surgery they hoped would save her life.
“It’s heart-wrenching is what it is,” they said. “It's just when you see somebody that little, you know, being two years old… it was like our world was turned upside down.”
“We all have--we all know somebody,” Wayne Ferrier, one of the show’s organizers related.
Organizers expected around one thousand cars to turn out in support.
All of the money is then passed along to the Johnson Family Cancer Center in Muskegon, helping West Michigan patients and their loved ones through the most difficult fight of their lives.
“It makes you feel like you can make a difference for somebody that may not be able to afford whether it's a ride to get chemo, or you know, anything that actually happens,” Wayne said. “It's a good feeling.”
“A very, very sad way to end up losing people.”
Beginning with his father’s diagnosis, the mark that cancer would leave on Ron’s family ran deep.
“My brother Greg found out he had cancer,” Ron said. “A couple of months after that, he ended up passing away… then my mother found out she had cancer and she died a month or two after… it'd be great if we can end up coming up with a cure for it.”
Ron’s family put together one of the gift baskets to be auctioned off Monday.
The Ferrier’s granddaughter, meanwhile, is now almost six.
Thanks to that early, life-saving intervention, she’s also soon to celebrate four years in remission.
“One person makes a difference, right,” Ferrier said. “With this turnout… they make this possible.”
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