El Camino Memorial Park hosted their annual Garden of Innocence fundraiser car show, and Classic Thunderbirds of San Diego (CTSD), as well as classic cars of all makes and models, motorcycles, and even remote control (RC) cars, drove out to the park in Sorrento Valley to support this worthy cause. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday morning and there was lots of shade from trees and a solar panel overhang.

With big smiles (and even some dance moves) Elaine and Carol oversaw the donuts, coffee, and water booth to help raise funds for the charity. The club has sponsored this event for several years in a row this way. This year, we raised $555.00, all of which was donated to the Garden of Innocence.

Five CTSD Birds flew in representing all three years of the Early Bird 1955-1957; the cars are cared for by Shelly/Gary, Mitch/Elaine, David/Pamela, Gary/Carol and Geoff. We even spotted a rare Sahara Rose 1963 Thunderbird (Hi Robert!), and encouraged him to join the club.

Several other San Diego clubs, including two clubs from Imperial Valley, joined forces to help make this event a huge success! The participant parking overflowed to a secondary lot with record-breaking attendance. Throughout the morning, not only did we have the pleasure of meeting new friends and looking at 170 beautiful cars, we enjoyed live music, raffle prizes, food trucks, and LOTS of trophies.

Congratulations go to Shelly (for her black 55) and Mitch (for his gray 57), who were among the People’s Choice Award recipients!

As luck would have it, David and Pamela rolled in “steaming,” but the flock gathered around and after three trips to the O’Reilly’s parts store, his fan belt was replaced and he was back in business. Another club member had a missing-keys scare, but they were right where he expected them to be, just out of reach, and after some McGyvering, we were able to access them. It’s nice to hang out in the park with friends who can troubleshoot and tinker on our Tbirds on the spot.

We have many more car club events coming up! To know where to see the Tbirds next in San Diego, become a member to receive our latest newsletter and rolling calendar. If you are a member and you haven’t received the latest newsletter or calendar, email us.

To learn more about the Garden of Innocence, go to: https://www.gardenofinnocence.org. Thanks to Elaine for helping organize this event and write this post!