You don’t have to be a car nut to know that 1964 Mustang is a sweet ride, and that is why Colonie resident Pat Hedgeman is currently raffling off the classic vehicle to raise money for Rosie’s Love Foundation.
The foundation is selling tickets for $20 each to raise money in honor of Rosie Francis Johnson, Hedgeman’s granddaughter, who died at the age of 2 in 2000 after battling neuroblastoma for 21 months.
Ed Jasewicz donated the refurbished vehicle, which he worked on with his two sons, Ed and Jeffrey.
This car was donated with love to Rosie’s Love, Hedgeman said.
Jasewicz said he had heard about the charity Hedgeman was running and figured it would be a great idea to donate the car.
`I know what it’s like to go somewhere and not have everything,` he said. `I figured I would give something back.`
Jasewicz said the Mustang was originally a shell of a car and that he and his sons put in all new panel pieces, shocks, brake line and fuel lines. He said a new motor alone cost $2,000, but they never totaled how much the work on the entire car was.
`By no means am I a rich person,` he said, adding that even as the country faces hard times, it’s always good to give back. `It’s just something we had to do.`
He said he and his sons put in almost 12 hours a day working on the vehicle, constantly re-sanding and re-painting until it met their standards. Jasewicz said that working on cars is a hobby of his so it was really a labor of love because he had a lot of fun working with his sons on it.
`We’ve always helped people. That’s what our family does,` he said. `We wanted them to make as much money as they could on that car.`
Hedgeman said the foundation has sold 700 tickets so far, and they will be drawing for the winner on Halloween night.
Howard Dorn, a friend of the family and coworker of Hedgeman’s at the Watervliet Arsenal, is storing the Mustang until it is raffled, said the Hudson Mohawk Chapter of the American Truck Historical Society was instrumental in getting the word out about the raffle.
`I had the idea of taking the car to the Truck and Tractor show in Ballston Spa, I contacted these people, and they gave us center stage and announced our name constantly over the PA system,` Dorn said. `We raised just shy of $3,000 there in two days.`
The money raised from the raffle will go to fund some of the many programs supported by the foundation, such as the Round-Up Family Retreat Weekends in the fall at the Double H Ranch Hole in the Woods Camp on Lake Luzerne. Anyone who has a child with cancer at Albany Medical Center is invited to the retreat. This provides the opportunity for the children to meet one another, as well as the parents.
`They may see each other in the waiting room in the hospital, but take them out of the hospital environment where they’re fun,` she said. `It’s an opportunity for parents to get to know each other and to speak with someone who is going through the same thing and that understands.`
There is also a trip, entitled Hakuna Matata, meaning `no worries` for all those Lion King fans out there, available to families to a cabin located at Dagget Lake in Warrensburg near Lake George and Bolton Landing. Hedgeman said the organization tries to provide the family with groceries, firewood and linens.
`All they have to do is show up with their clothes and their kids,` she said. `It’s just a time for families to spend time together as a family, away from the hospital and away from everything.`
Hedgeman said the location is just an hour away from a hospital, just in case something were to happen, which she said has occurred before.
The foundation began in 2000 after Rosie’s death. Hedgeman said the family spent almost every holiday in the hospital with Rosie. The first Easter after Rosie died, they cooked dinner and brought in Easter baskets for the kids and families who were at Albany Medical Center. Hedgeman said the organization grew from there. She added that at any given time, there are about 700 children being treated for some form of cancer at the hospital.
`We had been through it so we knew what the families were going through so we tried to help them,` she said. `One family would tell another family, and they would come to us and say, ‘This family could really use this, and this family could really use that.’ And it just kind of grew from that.`
Hedgeman said the foundation rarely seeks out donations because people usually just give things to them. They foundation will also visit Albany Medical Center around Christmas and fill the conference room, as Hedgeman put it, `from the floor to the ceiling` with gifts. The kids will pick out gifts to give to their family because it is difficult for them to leave the hospital to go to the mall and purchase a present.
`This gives them the opportunity to have the fun and the joy of giving,` she said. `They all seem to be more concerned with other people than they are themselves.`
Hedgeman said Rosie was a `very sociable baby,` and she adored many of the children she met. The main mission for Hedgeman is to spread the love that Rosie exuded every day.
`When she was gone, the love that she gave them, we wanted to pass it on,` she said. `It just keeps going on. There’s this tiny little girl, she was so sick, but when she walked into the clinic, her face just lit up, and she loved her doctors and she loved all the other children. Her love just keeps going on and on and on.`
“
