#125 Drive Toward A Parkinson’s Disease Cure | RSS.com

Deb Pollack has been involved in the automotive industry for decades. She's worked for small and large companies and several manufacturers, Ferrari to Maserati and General Motors to Mitsubishi

Pollack's work in public relations, which the Los Angeles-based businesswoman describes as the "blending of cars and camaraderie," has also resulted in her national philanthropic efforts with the organization she founded, Drive Toward A Cure (www.drivetowardacure.org).

Deb Pollack (driving) is the founder of the non-profit Drive Toward A Cure. It raises money to benefit the fight against Parkinson's Disease. Image courtesy of Deb Pollack.

In addition to currently working as the publicist for the boutique restoration house Singer Vehicle Design, Pollack advocates the ability to team cars and camaraderie to raise funds to benefit the battle against Parkinson's Disease.

Pollack is our guest on Episode #125 of The Weekly Driver Podcast. Co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia discuss with the organization's founder how her idea — fundraising automotive-travel events around the country — has grown, and what's planned this year.

"Having been in the car industry for several decades — blending cars and camaraderie has always been something of second nature," said Pollack, based in Los Angeles. "But when I lost my mom to Parkinson’s in 2006, I realized there were meaningful ways to share friendships and the emotional bonds and gratification that driving can bring to support the challenges others may face."

The first of a diverse series of Drive Toward A Cure events this season is the organization's inaugural 'weekend getaway.'

Specifically, it's The Kentucky Bourbon Trail Getaway.

As Pollack describes the weekend:

"It's a full day of unlimited Touring Lapping at the NCM Motorsports Park before heading to Louisville. After we’ve checked into the historic Brown Hotel, we’ll hit a local 'speakeasy' for great food and libations, and a chance to unwind.

"Saturday will feature a relaxing day touring several hand-picked Kentucky Bourbon distilleries and three great meals. Finally, on Sunday we apply the tried-and-true Drive Toward a Cure formula of great back road driving, crossing state lines into Tennessee and changing time zones with great visits to the Bavarian Bierhaus in Nashville and the Lane Motor Museum!"

In addition to other rally-travel days, Drive Toward A Cure also recently expanded its fundraising efforts to support for those challenged by Parkinson’s Disease by establishing an all-new "Special Assistance Fund." It will provide financial assistance to qualified applicants following extenuating circumstances, such as the recent devastating tornado in Nashville, Tennessee.

Since its inception, Drive Toward A Cure has raised more than $300,000, including contributions that provide financial assistance for research and patient programs.

For program details and this season's schedule of events, visit: www.drivetowardacure.org

 Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] James Raia: Welcome back to episode number 1 25 of The Weekly Driver Podcast. My name is James Raya. I'm an automotive columnist for Bay Area News Group, and I publish the website the weekly driver.com. My co-host and friend is Bruce Aldrich, and today for our 125th episode we have on a woman I met briefly a couple of years ago, maybe three years ago now at the LA Auto Show.

Her name is Deb Pollock. Pollock. I almost, I didn't angle it. Deb Pollock, I beg your pardon. Deb Pollock is the founder and runs with her husband, I believe an organization called Drive Toward a Cure. And it's a, from what we know about it it's doing great things to raise money for. Parkinson's disease, and I would venture to say almost everybody has a friend or a relative who's been afflicted by Parkinson's.

And so Deb is doing this great thing [00:01:00] every year to raise money with rallies and functions across the United States and different areas. And she's our guest today to talk all about the program she has. Welcome, Deb, to our podcast. Thank you very much for being available.

[00:01:12] Deb Pollock: Thank you James.

Appreciate it very much. Just two quick things. I'd just love to just say yeah. I am the founder of this organization. My husband is not a part of it. I beg your pardon. He's a supporter, but he's not, he is not part of the whole program. My partner in Cause is a gentleman by the name of Mark Davidson, who has been with me since the beginning inception of this as well as a colleague professionally for probably 20 years.

And Mark is based in Toronto and Mark has a company called Intelligent Communications and he helps us with our branding and our website and all of the visuals that you see out there. And he's really more my partner in cause. So I'd love to say it's my husband, but he's my travel husband. I guess

[00:01:54] James Raia: that's it.

Thanks for sitting me straight. I made an assumption there and. So thanks for filling us in. Could you [00:02:00] give us an overview of what precipitated the organization and what's it all about in a good general overview? Sure.

[00:02:07] Deb Pollock: Sure. I unfortunately lost my mom to Parkinson's in 2006 and and it was, a trying, challenging experience and I've been a part of the automotive community for a god awful long time, probably since the late eighties.

And. Part of my role as a publicist in automotive has been including product launches and doing things that are interactive with cars. And in 2006 I was working with Ferrari, north America and Maserati, and one of our very big friends and parts of Maserati and Ferrari was a gentleman by the name of Phil Hill, who I'm sure you're.

Aware of,

[00:02:43] James Raia: never heard of him. And

[00:02:44] Deb Pollock: Phil was America's first Formula one champion, Phil. Yes, he was Phil. Phil and his family based in Santa Monica. And are good friends of mine. And unfortunately, Phil was facing the cha, same challenges. He had Parkinson's and when he turned 80. Through Ferrari and Maserati, we decided to [00:03:00] ask him to come out to a a test day for the press up at Laguna Seka.

And we surprised the press by bringing out Phil for his 80th birthday celebration and bringing out a Maserati Mc 12 and his son and giving Phil, which turned out to be his final time on a racetrack. And we felt that we were the bookends of Phil's racing career because his first. Big race was back in 1958 in Rems, in a Maserati, I think it was a two 50 GT or something.

And then we, the last drive that he was in was the Maserati Mc 12 that his son drove on the track. Yes. And when we brought him out, there was not a dry eye in the house. And it was a wonderful day for him. He was happy and it was a wonderful day for us. And unfortunately later that year, he had passed away.

And after he passed away. We took his car out to the Danville Concor and they, in turn were friends of Phil's and they were raising money for Parkinson's at the time. And both he and my mom were treated at the Parkinson's [00:04:00] Institute where they were raising money for. And so I had gotten previously fer I and Maserati involved in the charity program.

And when Phil passed away they separated. Stayed on, but we brought the mc 12 back and said, you know what, we wanna do some passenger hot laps in Phil's name and raise some money. And so we brought that mc 12 and Derrick Hill back to Laguna Seca and we sold passenger hot laps. And I didn't know what to charge, I thought, what do you do for something like that?

And I charge 250 bucks and in an hour and a half we raised $7,500. Fantastic. Wow. And it was. A wonderful experience. We took the car out to the track, we did the hot laps and filled my purse with money and went to the Parkinson's Institute and said, this is all you know in Phil's name. And I continued working with the Danville program for a number of years as a volunteer and said to them, you know what?

We're in a really high net worth area. We're with people that really enjoy driving cars. We should include in your weekend of car events. 'cause they did a car [00:05:00] show and they also did a a gala dinner at the Black Hawk Museum. I said, we should do a drive. We should do something interactive to get these people out there and participating.

So we started a one day tour and it was just for lunch where you went from the Walnut Creek area up to Napa. And we chose a different winery every year and raised some money. And that went on under my domain for eight years. And people kept saying, why don't we do a weekend?

And I never had time because I do work full time. This is really just, my volunteer efforts and I happened to be the publicist for a small. Boutique restoration house called Singer Vehicle Design. It's a Porsche company. And so I'm busy all the time with that and I said I don't really know that I'm gonna have the time.

And they kept asking. And then in 2016, my mom would have turned 90 and it was 10 years after she was gone. And I said, gosh, if I don't start something official now, it's never gonna happen. And so we started drive toward a cure. I went to. My partner in cos Mark, [00:06:00] who I had brought over to help on the Danville program as well, and he and I had worked together for years at Ferrari and Maserati and I said, why don't you help me with this?

And together we decided we're gonna, we're gonna create drive toward a cure. And it began as a, weekend multi-day rally. A program.

[00:06:17] James Raia: Yes.

[00:06:17] Deb Pollock: For. For enthusiasts to participate for several days for a good cause, and and to see where it would go. And so we did one to two of those a year and it was really great.

We became a 5 0 1 C3 in 2016 and I didn't know. At that time, what more to do,