December 12, 2025 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, when Blair and Cat Cornell learned their son would be born with special needs, they braced themselves for a future they could not quite picture. The early years brought long appointments and days that seemed to rise and fall on small breakthroughs. One evening, after a day that had worn their son down, Blair took him for a quiet drive. The shift was immediate. The tension left his face, and the moment settled into something gentle and steady.
That drive eventually inspired JoyRide, a community built around children with developmental challenges who find comfort in cars and in the people who welcome them in. Blair shares how a simple ride became a way for families like his to feel seen.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
We search for the Our American Stories podcast go to
the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. And
up next we bring you Blair Cornell to tell you
the story of his family, their experience with special needs,
(00:33):
and what Blair is doing as a result.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Went off to college to Ohio University, and that's where
I met my wife, Kat. We met freshman year and
we're good friends for those first couple of years, and
then took that plunge and decided, how are we going
to take this risk to jeopardize our friendship and maybe date.
And I'm so glad that we did, because we started
(01:01):
dating and never looked back and have been best friends
ever since. We graduated in college in two thousand and four,
and I convinced Kat to move back to my hometown
here in Dayton, Ohio, where I knew I was going
to be working in a family business, financial advising, the
wealth management business that I had wanted to work in
since I was a little kid with my dad. And
(01:23):
she trusted me and believed in that, and so she
followed me back to Dayton, and that's kind of how
we ended up here. Kat and I got married in
two thousand and six. Kat is a CPA, so she
was in the accounting field for a couple of years,
and then she went on to work with a larger firm,
Lexus Nexus as a financial analyst and did.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
That for a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Two thousand and eight came and we had our first child,
Caitlyn was born and changed our lives forever. Shortly thereafter
then we welcomed our second child into the world, and
that was Carter, and that's really where our lives changed significantly.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
In two thousand and ten.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
On August twenty third, twenty ten, I remember the day
like it was yesterday. Kat and I were driving in
for our twenty week ultra sound and we found out
some exciting news that we were having a little boy,
But we also found out some devastating news that he
was going to be born with moderate to severe special needs,
if in fact he would even survive. For us, we
(02:33):
had made a decision that we were going to make
the most of this for several weeks. Then we continue
to try to find answers and figure out what was
going on and we went down and had very good
care doown in Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children's and that's a
top hospital in the country, and we had a great
team of physicians that answered a lot of questions and
helped to get us kind of on track for what
(02:54):
we were going to be expecting.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Meanwhile, Kat was very sick. She didn't really eat.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Much for about four or five months while she was
pregnant with Carter.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
She was not able to keep any food down.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
She had extreme hyperemesis, which is extreme nausea, and that's
what prevented her from really being able to eat much.
So she was on a lot of supplement of nutrition,
which was taxing for her and for me, you know,
caring for our daughter Caitlin at the time too, before
Carter was born, and so that was a tough time
(03:26):
as our family had to adapt to that and figure
that out. But we were also excited for the journey
that God was going to put us on when Carter
was born. And in twenty eleven January fourth, twenty eleven,
we welcomed Carter Thompson Cornell into the world and that's
(03:46):
really when the journey began for what God had in
store for us, in the plan that he had for
us that we couldn't have foreseen back when we had
just Caitlin or before when we were just getting married.
You think you are going to be heading down one
path and you realize quickly that there's a bigger plan
that we don't all know the answers to. And so
Carter was born in January fourth, twenty eleven, and was
(04:09):
in the nick you at the hospital for ten days,
and then.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
He came home.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
From there, we started to adapt to what it was
going to be like to live with a child with
special needs. Yeah, when you hear that a child certainly
is going to have challenges, you're heartbroken and you go
through that denial and that feeling of sadness and kind
(04:42):
of I think, at least for me, you're a little
selfish at first, wondering what's this going to mean for me?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
And how much harder is this going to be for me?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
And how's this going to change our family and all
the plans that we had and how that's no longer
going to be exactly the way I had planned it.
But then I think over time you start to evolve
into this is no longer necessarily just about me and
a challenge for me, But there's an opportunity for me
(05:14):
and for others to reshape us and to be able
to say, hey, this is a positive and this is
a blessing because at the time I would have told you,
I have no idea how'm gonna be able to do this,
and I'm not sure I can do this. When you're
in that moment when you have a child, you'll do
anything and you find a way. Carter surpassed a lot
(05:35):
of doctors' goals just from the fact that he was
born full term. A lot of doctors thought he might
have been pre term, which could present more challenges, and
the fact that he was full term was a big
win and a big success. Then in the hospital, he
had a lot of things that we weren't sure about,
like hearing and eyesight tests that seemed to be going okay,
(05:57):
and so then when he came home there were certain
things we didn't have to worry as much about and
other things we had more to worry about. But Kat
who was staying home with our kids at the time,
spent a lot of time researching and learning what she
could and then going to lots of doctor's appointments and
meeting with different specialists, and so there were lots of
unknowns and a lot of uncertainties for those first few years.
(06:20):
But that's really when Carter started taking on his own
and really doing well and started surpassing, quite frankly, what
we'd all had expected in those first few years of
his life. Carter to this day is somebody that we
always are wondering what's coming next, but he continues to
surprise us in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
And you've been listening to Blair Cornell tell the story
of his family. You're having a boy, and the bad news,
as he saw it, initially, his boy would have special needs,
that is, if he survived all. One thing we heard
clearly though from Blair is that he was excited to
find out what journey got had for him. And clearly
(07:02):
his faith life had so much to do with how
we handle this. His initial response was a selfish one,
how would this affect me? As opposed to well, might
this be an opportunity? And when we come back, we're
going to find out more about how young Carter changed
Blair Cornell's life here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here,
(07:29):
the host of Our American Stories, every day on this show,
We're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country, stories
from our big cities and small towns. But we truly
can't do the show without you. Our stories are free
to listen to, but they're not free to make. If
you love what you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot
com and click the donate button. Give a little, give
(07:51):
a lot. Go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and give,
and we're back with our American Stories and Blair Cornell's story.
(08:13):
After the birth of their first child, Caitlin Blair and
his wife Kat found out that they were about to
have another child, boy who's going to be born with
moderate severe special needs. Let's pick up where we last
left off.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
In two thousand and six.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I was driving home on a summer night and I
came into the house and I.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Looked at Kat, and she said, you've got to help me.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
I've had a really rough day and I don't really
know where to go or what to do, or how
to get Carter back on track. He's had a rough day.
And I said, well, what can I do? And she said,
I don't really know. So I walked over and sat
down next to Carter knelt down next to him and said, Carter,
what's going on? And he couldn't really talk. He was crying,
and tears we running down face. He was just very
upset and frustrated. And I thought, well, maybe I could
(09:03):
take him for a ride in my car. And I
had a fun convertible at the time, and I said, Carter,
do you want to go ride for a ride and
Daddy's convertible And he looked up at me like a
light switch was flipped and said riding Daddy's convertible.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
And then I said yeah, and he said let's go.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
And so I remember carrying him out to the garage
that night. I could just feel his chin resting on
my shoulder as we bounced along the way out to
the garage, and I strapped him into the convertible and
buckled him up and away we went.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
And that night I watched all.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Of his fears and tears and frustrations really go away.
And it was a pretty incredible experience to see just
a simple car ride really change his life. And I
thought to myself, that was pretty incredible. There's got to
be something more to this. And as I talked with
more people and Kat and we experimented, we realized that.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Was a big trigger for Carter.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Kids with special needs, they have triggers and some of
them and maybe cars.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
For Carter, it's certainly cars, but also music.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Those are triggers that can kind of distract him and
put him back on track and really kind of help
reshape how that day is going to go. So after
I experimented with that, we realized there was more we
could do with us, and we went to work and
creating a nonprofit that we formed that we call Joyride.
(10:31):
And Joyride was formed at the end of twenty and
sixteen and we launched our first event in twenty and seventeen.
And Joyride is all about kids, cars and smiles. That's
our tagline. It's pretty simple. It's just getting together kids
with some amazing cars to put a smile on their face.
And it's a pretty simple thing when you think about it,
(10:53):
but it's something that can be very moving, not only
to the kids but certainly their families. But I think
everybody that comes to our events, whether they're a car
driver or they're a volunteer, it's a way for people
to feel fulfilled in their life in giving back to
a community of people. That tend to get overlooked. Joy
(11:15):
Ride started out. At our very first event, we had
twelve cars and about forty five kids, and our biggest event,
we've had thirty cars and almost one hundred and fifty kids,
So probably five six seven hundred people that were there
in total when you factor their families and friends and
all the volunteers. So it's been a fun, fun way
(11:36):
to see people gather and give back in a big
and meaningful way. And as we continue to see Joyride grow,
I don't know where it will go, but I can
tell you that with the impact that it's had just
on me personally, it fuels me and continues to push
me harder to have more events, bigger events, and reach
(11:58):
more kids.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
I've got four kids now.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Brady and Davis were born when Carter was just three
years old, and Brady and Davis were born their twins,
and I would tell you that they have, even though
they're several years younger than Carter, they've kind of become
a big brother to him in some ways, and how
they already help him and give back. And it's neat
to see them be excited to come to joy Right
(12:23):
events to want to give back in the same way
that Carter's older.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Sister Caitlin does.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
And that's really what it's all about, is getting an
event pulled together for the community to come together, but
to realize we can all hit the pause button on
us and maybe find a way to give back to others.
We're trying to make this the most high end that
(12:48):
we possibly can, to make these kids truly feel like
a VIP. You want to try to bring cars in
that aren't cars that you'd see every day on the street.
That's what makes it special, makes it unique. So the
cars that we have there are very unique. We have
really typically a lot of the exotic or really high
end cars like Lamborghinis and Ferraris and McLaren's and you know,
(13:09):
really anything that you would probably turn your head at
on the road and think that's not normal. That's not
something you see every day, at least in most areas.
That's what we have at our events. And I also
kind of have a little chip on my shoulder when
it comes to siblings of kids with special needs that
(13:32):
they get to do all the sporting events and the
sleepovers and everything else and their sibling can't. And I
think it's okay that they get to go to an
event and they don't get to ride in these cars.
But Carter does, and Carter's friends that also have special
needs do, but their siblings don't. And it's not that
I'm trying to exclude them. I'm just trying to make
(13:55):
it that much more special for our members of joy Ride,
which are the kids that have special needs.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
But I'll tell you the story that sticks out to
me the.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Most was at our very first event, believe it or not,
at a very first event, there was someone who came
to our event, a driver that came to our event.
He had probably the nicest car at the event. He
was driving a Lamborghini event a door, which, for those
of you that don't know much about cars, it's a
half a million dollar car. So it's a very expensive
car that Lamborghini has. It handles and performs as well
(14:32):
as anything out there. But this driver looked at it
purely as it's just a car, and it's a car
to be used here for today to create happiness for
these kids. He didn't care if kids were standing on
the seats, he didn't care if kids were rubbing up
against it.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
He didn't care.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
It was just a car, and it was not going
to he was not going to guard it and not
let anybody really get to enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
It was there for the kids to enjoy.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
And I'll tell you, I'm I'm always walking around a
little bit and making sure that parents and kids are
respecting these cars because they're very expensive cars, and not
everybody feels like this driver did. But on this particular day,
this driver was there and I watched his interaction with
these kids all day long, and after the event, I
remember watching him talking to one of the kids, the
(15:19):
members from Joyride, and it was a scene that you
would almost see from a movie. He was kneeling down
next to this little boy that the boy was telling
him about how he was scared because he had some
treatments coming up that he wasn't sure how it was
going to go. And this little boy had challenged all
kinds of challenges and he had some pretty intense medical
(15:41):
treatments that were coming and this driver knelt down next
to him and took his hat off that the boy
had kind of taken a liking to and said, well,
I've gone through a lot of medical challenges myself too,
and this hat is my magic hat.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
That's helped me get through all of that.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
And when I wear this hat, it protects me to
make sure that I don't feeling that pain or I
don't worry. He goes, I'm gonna give you my hat,
and you wear this hat, and that's going to help
get you through all those challenges.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
And you could see probably.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Ten volunteers watching that interaction, and there are volunteers watching
this driver and I pulled them aside at the end
of the event and I said, I just watched that,
and that's amazing that you have that outlook. And he said, look,
I've gone through a really tough time in my life.
I've gone through a divorce, I faced a lot of
medical challenges myself. And he said, I bought this car
(16:32):
thinking it would bring happiness to me, and it has.
It's been a fun toy to have, but I've never
experienced joy with this car or joy like this in
my life before. This is one of the best days
of my life. And seeing that I can help somebody
else has really moved me. He said, I can't wait
to come back and do it again. And that's exactly
what joy right is all about.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
And a terrific job on the storytelling and production by
Robbie Davis, and a special thanks to Blair Cornell for
sharing his story, his family's story, and what he did
about it, what he did about it in his own community.
Starting Joyride, Carter is having a rough day and he thought,
maybe I can take him for a ride and Daddy's convertible,
by the way, what parent hasn't thought this at some
(17:20):
point or another to solve a problem. I watched all
of his tears and fears go away one simple car ride.
It was a trigger while it can distract him and
put him back on track. Indeed it did. And the
scene I'll always have in my mind is the driver
and his magic hat with that young boy and what
it did for the driver as well as the boy.
(17:42):
A story of compassion, of love, of so much more.
Blair Cornell's story, the joy Ride Story, fast cars, and
big smiles. Here on our American Stories.
This is Lee Habib and this is Our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
We search for the Our American Stories podcast go to
the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. And
up next we bring you Blair Cornell to tell you
the story of his family, their experience with special needs,
(00:33):
and what Blair is doing as a result.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Went off to college to Ohio University, and that's where
I met my wife, Kat. We met freshman year and
we're good friends for those first couple of years, and
then took that plunge and decided, how are we going
to take this risk to jeopardize our friendship and maybe date.
And I'm so glad that we did, because we started
(01:01):
dating and never looked back and have been best friends
ever since. We graduated in college in two thousand and four,
and I convinced Kat to move back to my hometown
here in Dayton, Ohio, where I knew I was going
to be working in a family business, financial advising, the
wealth management business that I had wanted to work in
since I was a little kid with my dad. And
(01:23):
she trusted me and believed in that, and so she
followed me back to Dayton, and that's kind of how
we ended up here. Kat and I got married in
two thousand and six. Kat is a CPA, so she
was in the accounting field for a couple of years,
and then she went on to work with a larger firm,
Lexus Nexus as a financial analyst and did.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
That for a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Two thousand and eight came and we had our first child,
Caitlyn was born and changed our lives forever. Shortly thereafter
then we welcomed our second child into the world, and
that was Carter, and that's really where our lives changed significantly.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
In two thousand and ten.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
On August twenty third, twenty ten, I remember the day
like it was yesterday. Kat and I were driving in
for our twenty week ultra sound and we found out
some exciting news that we were having a little boy,
But we also found out some devastating news that he
was going to be born with moderate to severe special needs,
if in fact he would even survive. For us, we
(02:33):
had made a decision that we were going to make
the most of this for several weeks. Then we continue
to try to find answers and figure out what was
going on and we went down and had very good
care doown in Cincinnati and Cincinnati Children's and that's a
top hospital in the country, and we had a great
team of physicians that answered a lot of questions and
helped to get us kind of on track for what
(02:54):
we were going to be expecting.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
Meanwhile, Kat was very sick. She didn't really eat.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
Much for about four or five months while she was
pregnant with Carter.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
She was not able to keep any food down.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
She had extreme hyperemesis, which is extreme nausea, and that's
what prevented her from really being able to eat much.
So she was on a lot of supplement of nutrition,
which was taxing for her and for me, you know,
caring for our daughter Caitlin at the time too, before
Carter was born, and so that was a tough time
(03:26):
as our family had to adapt to that and figure
that out. But we were also excited for the journey
that God was going to put us on when Carter
was born. And in twenty eleven January fourth, twenty eleven,
we welcomed Carter Thompson Cornell into the world and that's
(03:46):
really when the journey began for what God had in
store for us, in the plan that he had for
us that we couldn't have foreseen back when we had
just Caitlin or before when we were just getting married.
You think you are going to be heading down one
path and you realize quickly that there's a bigger plan
that we don't all know the answers to. And so
Carter was born in January fourth, twenty eleven, and was
(04:09):
in the nick you at the hospital for ten days,
and then.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
He came home.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
From there, we started to adapt to what it was
going to be like to live with a child with
special needs. Yeah, when you hear that a child certainly
is going to have challenges, you're heartbroken and you go
through that denial and that feeling of sadness and kind
(04:42):
of I think, at least for me, you're a little
selfish at first, wondering what's this going to mean for me?
Speaker 3 (04:49):
And how much harder is this going to be for me?
Speaker 2 (04:51):
And how's this going to change our family and all
the plans that we had and how that's no longer
going to be exactly the way I had planned it.
But then I think over time you start to evolve
into this is no longer necessarily just about me and
a challenge for me, But there's an opportunity for me
(05:14):
and for others to reshape us and to be able
to say, hey, this is a positive and this is
a blessing because at the time I would have told you,
I have no idea how'm gonna be able to do this,
and I'm not sure I can do this. When you're
in that moment when you have a child, you'll do
anything and you find a way. Carter surpassed a lot
(05:35):
of doctors' goals just from the fact that he was
born full term. A lot of doctors thought he might
have been pre term, which could present more challenges, and
the fact that he was full term was a big
win and a big success. Then in the hospital, he
had a lot of things that we weren't sure about,
like hearing and eyesight tests that seemed to be going okay,
(05:57):
and so then when he came home there were certain
things we didn't have to worry as much about and
other things we had more to worry about. But Kat
who was staying home with our kids at the time,
spent a lot of time researching and learning what she
could and then going to lots of doctor's appointments and
meeting with different specialists, and so there were lots of
unknowns and a lot of uncertainties for those first few years.
(06:20):
But that's really when Carter started taking on his own
and really doing well and started surpassing, quite frankly, what
we'd all had expected in those first few years of
his life. Carter to this day is somebody that we
always are wondering what's coming next, but he continues to
surprise us in a lot of ways.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
And you've been listening to Blair Cornell tell the story
of his family. You're having a boy, and the bad news,
as he saw it, initially, his boy would have special needs,
that is, if he survived all. One thing we heard
clearly though from Blair is that he was excited to
find out what journey got had for him. And clearly
(07:02):
his faith life had so much to do with how
we handle this. His initial response was a selfish one,
how would this affect me? As opposed to well, might
this be an opportunity? And when we come back, we're
going to find out more about how young Carter changed
Blair Cornell's life here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here,
(07:29):
the host of Our American Stories, every day on this show,
We're bringing inspiring stories from across this great country, stories
from our big cities and small towns. But we truly
can't do the show without you. Our stories are free
to listen to, but they're not free to make. If
you love what you hear, go to Ouramerican Stories dot
com and click the donate button. Give a little, give
(07:51):
a lot. Go to Ouramerican Stories dot com and give,
and we're back with our American Stories and Blair Cornell's story.
(08:13):
After the birth of their first child, Caitlin Blair and
his wife Kat found out that they were about to
have another child, boy who's going to be born with
moderate severe special needs. Let's pick up where we last
left off.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
In two thousand and six.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
I was driving home on a summer night and I
came into the house and I.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Looked at Kat, and she said, you've got to help me.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
I've had a really rough day and I don't really
know where to go or what to do, or how
to get Carter back on track. He's had a rough day.
And I said, well, what can I do? And she said,
I don't really know. So I walked over and sat
down next to Carter knelt down next to him and said, Carter,
what's going on? And he couldn't really talk. He was crying,
and tears we running down face. He was just very
upset and frustrated. And I thought, well, maybe I could
(09:03):
take him for a ride in my car. And I
had a fun convertible at the time, and I said, Carter,
do you want to go ride for a ride and
Daddy's convertible And he looked up at me like a
light switch was flipped and said riding Daddy's convertible.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
And then I said yeah, and he said let's go.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
And so I remember carrying him out to the garage
that night. I could just feel his chin resting on
my shoulder as we bounced along the way out to
the garage, and I strapped him into the convertible and
buckled him up and away we went.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
And that night I watched all.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Of his fears and tears and frustrations really go away.
And it was a pretty incredible experience to see just
a simple car ride really change his life. And I
thought to myself, that was pretty incredible. There's got to
be something more to this. And as I talked with
more people and Kat and we experimented, we realized that.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Was a big trigger for Carter.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Kids with special needs, they have triggers and some of
them and maybe cars.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
For Carter, it's certainly cars, but also music.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
Those are triggers that can kind of distract him and
put him back on track and really kind of help
reshape how that day is going to go. So after
I experimented with that, we realized there was more we
could do with us, and we went to work and
creating a nonprofit that we formed that we call Joyride.
(10:31):
And Joyride was formed at the end of twenty and
sixteen and we launched our first event in twenty and seventeen.
And Joyride is all about kids, cars and smiles. That's
our tagline. It's pretty simple. It's just getting together kids
with some amazing cars to put a smile on their face.
And it's a pretty simple thing when you think about it,
(10:53):
but it's something that can be very moving, not only
to the kids but certainly their families. But I think
everybody that comes to our events, whether they're a car
driver or they're a volunteer, it's a way for people
to feel fulfilled in their life in giving back to
a community of people. That tend to get overlooked. Joy
(11:15):
Ride started out. At our very first event, we had
twelve cars and about forty five kids, and our biggest event,
we've had thirty cars and almost one hundred and fifty kids,
So probably five six seven hundred people that were there
in total when you factor their families and friends and
all the volunteers. So it's been a fun, fun way
(11:36):
to see people gather and give back in a big
and meaningful way. And as we continue to see Joyride grow,
I don't know where it will go, but I can
tell you that with the impact that it's had just
on me personally, it fuels me and continues to push
me harder to have more events, bigger events, and reach
(11:58):
more kids.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
I've got four kids now.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Brady and Davis were born when Carter was just three
years old, and Brady and Davis were born their twins,
and I would tell you that they have, even though
they're several years younger than Carter, they've kind of become
a big brother to him in some ways, and how
they already help him and give back. And it's neat
to see them be excited to come to joy Right
(12:23):
events to want to give back in the same way
that Carter's older.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Sister Caitlin does.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
And that's really what it's all about, is getting an
event pulled together for the community to come together, but
to realize we can all hit the pause button on
us and maybe find a way to give back to others.
We're trying to make this the most high end that
(12:48):
we possibly can, to make these kids truly feel like
a VIP. You want to try to bring cars in
that aren't cars that you'd see every day on the street.
That's what makes it special, makes it unique. So the
cars that we have there are very unique. We have
really typically a lot of the exotic or really high
end cars like Lamborghinis and Ferraris and McLaren's and you know,
(13:09):
really anything that you would probably turn your head at
on the road and think that's not normal. That's not
something you see every day, at least in most areas.
That's what we have at our events. And I also
kind of have a little chip on my shoulder when
it comes to siblings of kids with special needs that
(13:32):
they get to do all the sporting events and the
sleepovers and everything else and their sibling can't. And I
think it's okay that they get to go to an
event and they don't get to ride in these cars.
But Carter does, and Carter's friends that also have special
needs do, but their siblings don't. And it's not that
I'm trying to exclude them. I'm just trying to make
(13:55):
it that much more special for our members of joy Ride,
which are the kids that have special needs.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
But I'll tell you the story that sticks out to
me the.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Most was at our very first event, believe it or not,
at a very first event, there was someone who came
to our event, a driver that came to our event.
He had probably the nicest car at the event. He
was driving a Lamborghini event a door, which, for those
of you that don't know much about cars, it's a
half a million dollar car. So it's a very expensive
car that Lamborghini has. It handles and performs as well
(14:32):
as anything out there. But this driver looked at it
purely as it's just a car, and it's a car
to be used here for today to create happiness for
these kids. He didn't care if kids were standing on
the seats, he didn't care if kids were rubbing up
against it.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
He didn't care.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
It was just a car, and it was not going
to he was not going to guard it and not
let anybody really get to enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
It was there for the kids to enjoy.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
And I'll tell you, I'm I'm always walking around a
little bit and making sure that parents and kids are
respecting these cars because they're very expensive cars, and not
everybody feels like this driver did. But on this particular day,
this driver was there and I watched his interaction with
these kids all day long, and after the event, I
remember watching him talking to one of the kids, the
(15:19):
members from Joyride, and it was a scene that you
would almost see from a movie. He was kneeling down
next to this little boy that the boy was telling
him about how he was scared because he had some
treatments coming up that he wasn't sure how it was
going to go. And this little boy had challenged all
kinds of challenges and he had some pretty intense medical
(15:41):
treatments that were coming and this driver knelt down next
to him and took his hat off that the boy
had kind of taken a liking to and said, well,
I've gone through a lot of medical challenges myself too,
and this hat is my magic hat.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
That's helped me get through all of that.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
And when I wear this hat, it protects me to
make sure that I don't feeling that pain or I
don't worry. He goes, I'm gonna give you my hat,
and you wear this hat, and that's going to help
get you through all those challenges.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
And you could see probably.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Ten volunteers watching that interaction, and there are volunteers watching
this driver and I pulled them aside at the end
of the event and I said, I just watched that,
and that's amazing that you have that outlook. And he said, look,
I've gone through a really tough time in my life.
I've gone through a divorce, I faced a lot of
medical challenges myself. And he said, I bought this car
(16:32):
thinking it would bring happiness to me, and it has.
It's been a fun toy to have, but I've never
experienced joy with this car or joy like this in
my life before. This is one of the best days
of my life. And seeing that I can help somebody
else has really moved me. He said, I can't wait
to come back and do it again. And that's exactly
what joy right is all about.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
And a terrific job on the storytelling and production by
Robbie Davis, and a special thanks to Blair Cornell for
sharing his story, his family's story, and what he did
about it, what he did about it in his own community.
Starting Joyride, Carter is having a rough day and he thought,
maybe I can take him for a ride and Daddy's convertible,
by the way, what parent hasn't thought this at some
(17:20):
point or another to solve a problem. I watched all
of his tears and fears go away one simple car ride.
It was a trigger while it can distract him and
put him back on track. Indeed it did. And the
scene I'll always have in my mind is the driver
and his magic hat with that young boy and what
it did for the driver as well as the boy.
(17:42):
A story of compassion, of love, of so much more.
Blair Cornell's story, the joy Ride Story, fast cars, and
big smiles. Here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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