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The EXECUTIVE CHALLENGE Presented by BRAZEN SPORTS The communities most brazen executives come together with the 3-Dimensional Services Group to rapidly manufacture a Detroit fund development exclusive with The Trans Am Race Company, in support of Life Directions.
DETROIT, May 29, 2018 — The 3-Dimensional Services Group, a leader in on-demand manufacturing of prototypes and low-volume production with its global headquarters in Rochester Hills, Mich., is a company with a heart! Be it family, friends, employees, or charitable-community causes, Douglas Peterson, Founder and CEO of the 3-Dimensional Services Group, is to be commended for his philanthropic record on and off the track.
The generosity of community partners and a concept brought to life by David Fischer, retired executive from Axalta Coating Systems, and Eddie Rimanelli of Brazen Sports, a goal-inspired Detroit-based watch company, provided a unique opportunity for local nonprofit organizations to generate funding and influenced visibility by maximizing car livery from a donated race car. Together with Life Directions’ 45th annual Spark of Hope Tribute Gala, which targeted multiple brazen executives’ and community leaders, the pilot concept supported Life Directions’ peer to peer motivation program that impacts local Detroit youth.
John Clagett, president of Trans Am Race Co., opened the door to Doug Peterson’s race team, Coleman Motorsports Group — featuring points leader and team driver Rafa Matos — to launch this outside-the-box thinking to inspire the motorsports community at large. With that motivation, Patrick Rugiero, co-chair of Life Directions Fund Development committee, reached out to Matthew J. Simoncini, retired CEO of Lear Corp. to brazenly step up as Title Sponsor to support Life Directions Tribute Gala. “Simoncini, one of Detroit’s most respected CEOs and departing commander in chief of Lear, stroked his final title sponsored check to Life Directions for $100,000 like a boss”, says Rugiero, executive director of the Roman Village Restaurant Group in Dearborn. Other generous sponsors and honorees include Terrence B. Larkin, senior vice president, business development, and general counsel of Lear Corp, and Jack Aronson founder of Clean Planet Foods in Chesterfield Township, and founder of Garden Fresh in Ferndale (since sold to Campbell Soup Co.), etc.
Peterson will be driving a specifically designed Charity wrapped #87 3-Dimensional Services Group Camaro TA2 Trans Am Series racecar prominently displaying Life Directions and it’s major donors Lear and Clean Planet Foods during the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Presented By Lear. “What makes this program so benevolent is that Peterson’s commitment to our inaugural concept is 100 percent from the heart,” says Rugiero. “He has underwritten the total cost of wrapping, and transportation of the vehicle to be featured at Life Directions premier events and participating in the 2018 Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Trans Am TA2 race weekend.”
The 3-Dimensional Services Group is also title sponsor for both Trans Am races on the weekend of the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Presented By Lear June 1-3. While not uncommon for race teams to offer space on their vehicle to charities, it’s extremely unusual for a race team to offer up the entire vehicle to raise money for a charity and underwrite the entire cost to support a good cause. Peterson’s generosity pioneered a Detroit Exclusive for Life Directions and the Trans Am Race Co. They launched a new way to mark the moment and give back to corporate sponsors for their support. It’s not as easy as you think for major corporations to support every local charity with a good cause, says Rimanelli, who serves on the Gala’s Executive Committee for Life Directions and co-chairs fund development with Rugiero. Last Thursday, on May 24th Danielle Hilliker, executive director of Life Directions, hosted a Sponsorship Appreciation Day. “The event at Lear Corp. Headquarters was another wonderful opportunity to display the collaboration and efforts to support our work with youth in Detroit. Over 200 people visited the #87 TA2 car and enjoyed National Coney Islands, allowing us a unique way to introduce our organization, further our mission and feel what it’s like to be in the driver’s seat,” says Hilliker.
The Ignite the Spark fund development concept helped raised upward of $350,000 for Life Directions programming. Many thanks to the kind folks at the Lear Corp, Penske Corp., Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Presented By Lear, and The Fulkerson Group. Special thanks go to Matt Simoncini Detroit’s most Brazen Executive, Peterson, Clagett, and former four-time Detroit Red Wing Stanley Cup winner Darren McCarty for their support of Life Directions Spark of Hope Tribute Gala. McCarty will host as the 2018 Grand Marshall in the Trans-Am Series weekend of the 2018 Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix on Belle Isle.
“We look forward to expanding the program with The Trans Am Race Co. next year and the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix Presented By Lear to involve multiple race teams, aligned with multiple charities to host a “Brazen Executive Gala” to inspire the community to Dream Big, Face Your Fears, and Live a Brazen Lifestyle personally, academically, and athletically,” says Rimanelli. “It took a lot of hard work and trust from senior executives to play in the space and do something for the first time.” Rimanelli, who pitched the idea to the Life Directions’ board of directors and the Trans Am Race Co., laughingly states he usually gets fired for such over the top ideas.
Life Directions is an organization that helps peers mentor peers, and the wonderful work that’s being done is with young people who are at risk or could possibly be heading down the wrong road and making that left turn instead of making the right turn. You see it in a lot in seventh to ninth graders because that’s when they’re making a decision about continuing on with their educational pursuits, and they can get involved with the wrong people and that takes them down the wrong road. That becomes a problem for not only their own life and future, but also the future of others in the community, so it’s so important that the work that’s being done continues. It’s in the interest of all of us in the community. Whether you live in the community or have a business in it, it’s in everyone’s interest to see crime and violence eliminated, says Rugiero.
For the past 45 years, Life Directions has served communities by providing young adults challenged by poverty with the tools, inspiration, and guidance necessary to break cycles of violence and under-achievement and mature into responsible, productive adults. Through its programming, Life Directions provides a network of support and guidance through peer-outreach, peer-mentoring, and intergenerational events focused on youths and young adults aged 13 to 35. More than 168,000 young adults have participated in Life Directions since its inception in 1973. For more information, to become a sponsor, or make a donation, visit: www.LifeDirections.org or call 313-420-0310.
Tribute Gala Photos Courtesy of DBusiness Magazine, Patrick Gloria