I received a call on the 15th of July from a family I know through "Live to Race", with a mother asking if I could please assist with a Ferrari poster for her son's bedroom. Just this simple request. I met them three years ago - she has twins with cerebral palsy and their 16th birthday was coming up on the 25th of July. Her son Rudi is one of the biggest Ferrari fans you will ever come across and with my sports car contacts it was easy to get something together for this. He has been very ill over the past year, in and out of ICU - again scheduled for major surgery in a week's time. We had to move quickly.
dhk didn't have any nominations for Mandela Day (two days away) and I therefore decided to nominate this as an office project, and to get some of the staff involved. The Board gave us the green light and we scheduled a design brainstorming session to see what was possible as wall art, posters, collages etc. It wasn't long before the group decided on two simple prints - full colour elevations of a Ferrari Formula 1 Race Car and the latest FXX (similar to the 458 Italia). We would print these half full scale. Brilliant. There was just one obstacle - it could be very long before Rudi could see the art work and it wouldn't be allowed in to ICU. "LIGHT-BULB" - we'll use one of the graphics, print it on soft canvas and make him a personalised one-of-a-kind Ferrari duvet. We told his parents about nothing, just kept the secret and got Hirt and Carter going with the printing. . The prints were collected two days later - a day before Rudi's 16th. dhk covered all the printing costs, H&C gave us a 25 percent discount on the printing, Live to Race paid for the duvet and cover and Mignon (my best half) did all the sewing. We were done and ready to deliver on the night before Rudi's birthday - with a party scheduled in ICU the following morning.
Mignon and I drove to Kuilsrivier and delivered the lot to an anxious Karin and Deon, who invited us in for a cup of coffee. They were over-exited, and Rudi's twin sister was also brought into the living area - she couldn't take her eyes off the posters. I took the bubble wrap off the posters and Karin just put her hand over her mouth - she was amazed. They were so impressed and said that this was so much more than what was expected! I then opened the MR Price bag and pulled out the 3/4 bed size duvet with the Ferrari graphic and she was almost in tears...........Joe, she said - you're not going to believe this..........! Rudi wanted a Ferrari Duvet for this birthday, they had searched the entire country and couldn't find one - nowhere. Now, without even knowing, you guys arrive with that "special gift"!
I just stood amazed and realised that I and we as a group had again been a small part of something so much bigger that we could ever have imagined. There's a saying we have at Reach for a Dream: "you'll never find many people on the road along that extra mile", make it your life's mission to do that extra bit - it's always worth it.
I'd like to thank everyone at dhk for being a part of this outreach, for the input, the time, the funding, but most of all for the heart!
Joe
We would also want to ask for your prayers for Rudi. He is quite sick and will be having a very big operation next week. Please keep him in your prayers. Thank you
