EVENT: ‘WHAT DRIVES YOU?’ at THE-LOWDOWN.com Presents: Showcased 2013

This year, THE-LOWDOWN.com Presents: Showcased 2013 coincided closely with World Suicide Prevention Day 2013. The theme for this year was Stigma: A Major Barrier for Suicide Prevention and as a lead up to the day and in an effort to help break the stigma associated with suicide, we created our ‘What Drives You?’ campaign. As much as Showcased has become an annual event, we want World Suicide Prevention Day to be an annual event equally recognised by the automotive community. And as much as the cars were important to those who attended the show, we discovered that suicide prevention was equally important to almost just as many.

Along with some mental health resources and merchandise at our table, we constructed a twin-walled exhibition and lounge space for our ‘What Drives You?’ campaign in our aptly named Cars For Hope Corner.

People of various backgrounds, ages and life experiences journeyed from various places to be a part of not only our campaign but also the Cars For Hope movement. Those who knew of us greeted us with a friendly “hello” and those who didn’t approached with a little bit of curiosity.

Some added to our wall…

…and others simply explored it.

Before we knew it, our walls were being filled with the writings of people’s hopes, dreams and drives.

This was our very first submission of the day. He came to grab a sticker as soon as they day began before mentioning to me that his girlfriend currently suffers from depression. It is his goal to help her towards recovery and the determination in his voice made me believe in him.

Reading people’s drives on our wall opened my eyes to the countless things that people find motivation in. It could be something simple like being there for your loved ones…

…or just looking towards the start of a new day.

It was great to see people visiting Cars For Hope Corner with their friends to add to our wall and take home some wristbands as a reminder of their contribution. I noticed many sharing some quiet words together during their visit, hopefully a sign that they related to other people’s drives, just as I did.

It was equally great to see the never-ending enthusiasm of everyone getting involved in ‘What Drives You?’ throughout the day.

Justin from Intune Racing has been an avid Cars For Hope supporter from the very beginning and was displaying his EG Civic with us for Showcased 2013. He quietly brought along his younger daughter to Cars For Hope Corner and helped her to complete a ‘What Drives You?’ sheet before adding it to our wall. This was was a special moment and one of the highlights of my day.

We also had a whiteboard for anyone who wanted to share their drive and have their photo taken, including Louis from Motor Magazine.

This is Claudia, who you might remember recently contributed an Insight. She journeyed all the way from Melbourne to visit us early in the day with some friends and added to our wall as well as completing a whiteboard.

A large part Cars For Hope is this community involvement.

By sharing your drives and collectively exhibiting them, we hoped to prove that you are not alone. Like the twine that held together each sheet, we are held together by each other and are connected by sharing our drives and sharing our stories.

Thank you to everyone who visited us at Showcased 2013. Thank you to Adrian, Amy, Aziz, Eric, Fadi, Justin and Maneeta for sacrificing their day for us. Thank you to Adam, Jason and Michael for continuing to support us and giving us the chance to dream bigger so we could help others. Thank you for sharing your drive, thank you for sharing your story, thank you for continuing to live it and thank you for helping to inspire and encourage others.

We closed our campaign at Showcased 2013 knowing that lives had changed for the better. Whether these changes were large or small didn’t matter, but in hearing people’s stories and seeing their drives, our ultimate goal was met.