Ft. Myers Toyota Announces Winners of the "ROCK for Charity, ROLL with a Ride" Event

The winning charity was Good Wheels. The winning contestant, Richard Irvin, was one of SIX who rocked for 72 hours! It was an unprecedented outcome for six contestants to go the whole distance due in large part to the support they received from family, friends and the charities many who were there round the clock as well.

Says Irvin, “This contest was awesome! I can’t believe it was actually me who won. I’ve never won anything in my life! Now I have a brand new Matrix, and Good Wheels has a brand new Sienna…this is so cool.” The random drawing at the end was anticipated but not expected by Ft. Myers Toyota or Meridian Broadcasting who did a wonderful job judging and administering the competition.

The publicity and the inclusion 14 Southwest Florida health and human services charity organizations took this promotion and competition to an entirely new level of interest achieving not only local attention but nation and worldwide attention as well. Pamela Templeton, Vice President of Ft. Myers Toyota, notes, “Our Web traffic was up 70 percent and we received in excess of 7,000 to 8,000 hits on our site, plus everyone was following the action on the live Webcam. There was an incredible bonding and camaraderie that evolved. It was humbling and exciting all at once. We are retooling the site and will continue to shine a light on these local charities as we move to auction off these beautiful and unique chairs online.”

The ROCK for Charity, ROLL with a Ride™ contest consisted of 26 finalists and two alternates who were chosen from a semi-finalist pool of hundreds. They began rocking continuously at 5:30 pm on October 24, 2009; the competition ended after a full 72 hours. The individual winner’s prize was a brand new 2010 Toyota Matrix and the local charity, whose chair the winner used, won a new 2010 Toyota Sienna Van. Each charity was represented by two rocking chairs, randomly assigned to each individual contestant. Each of the 28 painted rocking chairs will be auctioned off, thus giving all 14 organizations another chance to benefit financially and from the exposure.

Templeton goes on to state, “This contest was important in raising awareness for all these wonderful charities. They do so much good for the community and the rocking chair contest was an exciting and fun way to get people involved. These organizations deserve to be recognized for the incredible work they do and they deserve all the help we can give them.”

Participating charity organizations included:

    •    Abuse Counseling and Treatment
    •    American Red Cross, Lee County Chapter of Ft. Myers
    •    Barbara’s Friends, The Children’s Hospital Cancer Fund
    •    Good Wheels
    •    Goodwill of Southwest Florida
    •    Harry Chapin Food Bank of Southwest Florida
    •    Hero Care
    •    LARC, Inc.
    •    Lee County Homeless Commission
    •    Lee Pace Center for Girls
    •    Quality Life Center of Southwest Florida
    •    St. Matthew’s House/Immokalee Friendship House
    •    The “Tender Loving Care Complex” Inc.
    •    Voices for Kids of Southwest Florida

Please visit Ft. Myers Toyota to find links to all these charities and find out how you can still get involved to help them out.

About Good Wheels: 
Good Wheels provides special-needs transportation to our elderly, disabled, and less-fortunate in Lee, Hendry, and Glades counties. Founded in June 1990 as a non-profit. There Mission is to coordinate and provide cost-effective, compassionate, and reliable transportation to the disadvantaged, disabled, those working to gain economic self-sufficiency, and the general public.

About Ft. Myers Toyota:
 Ft. Myers Toyota is located at 2555 Colonial Blvd, on the big corner of Colonial and Fowler in Fort Myers Florida just west of I-75 exit 136. Ft. Myers Toyota can be found online at www.FmToyota.com, or you can call toll free at 1-888-802-9401. Ft. Myers Toyota, “The Family Store”, has been serving Southwest Florida, Naples, Fort Myers, Port Charlotte, Estero, Bonita Springs, Venice, Sarasota, and Cape Coral since 1988.