Terminally-Ill Man In Missouri To Achieve Wish Of Riding In A Corvette
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On Friday, members of the Southeast Missouri Corvette Club will grant the wish of a Sikeston man with a terminal illness, convening at the local Sikeston Factory Outlet Mall to let Tony Ohara live out his last wish of taking a ride in a Chevrolet Corvette.
Ohara was diagnosed in May of this year with a terminal illness, and subsequently referred to Missouri Delta Hospice. While there, according to local CBS affiliate KFVS 12, he mentioned to the hospice nurse that he had reached out to an area dealership about fulfilling his lifelong wish to ride in a Corvette, but was told that the dealer was unable to grant his wish.
So, the staff at Missouri Delta Hospice took the matter into their own hands, with Business Manager Sherry Newell posting Ohara’s story on Facebook on July 31st, hoping to find someone who could help make Ohara’s dream a reality. Within just 24 hours, the post had been shared some 2,400 times, and nearly a hundred kindhearted Chevrolet Corvette owners had volunteered to give Tony Ohara a ride.
As of this writing, the post has been shared more than 25k times, attracting more than 500 comments.
Now, thanks to the desire of so many local Corvette owners to honor the last wish of Mr. Ohara, Missouri Delta Hospice and the Corvette Club of Southeast Missouri have been able to organize an event for tomorrow – August 17th – at 6pm that will feature a whole fleet of Corvettes. Ms. Newell will arrive at Ohara’s home in one of the sportscars to bring him to the Sikeston Factory Outlet Mall, where he’ll (hopefully) be surprised by a large gathering of local cars. From there, assuming Ohara’s up for it, they’ll parade through the streets of Sikeston.
In a follow-up post on Facebook, Sherry Newell said that the event’s organizers “encourage & welcome all Corvette lovers to attend,” so if you happen to be in the area and you’d like to have some part in granting the last wish of Mr. Ohara, do consider stopping by.
(Hat-tip: Corvette Blogger)
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Bravo for al those persons that will permits o Hara gets take his dream!!
I wish I knew about this earlier. I would have let Mr. Ohara drive mine!
I hope he gets to ride in a C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, C6, and C7; I hope he gets to experience them all and I hope there are lots of kind people that show up to cheer him on. Maybe GM could even zoom by the Sikeston Outlet Mall in a C8 to make it an amazing, beyond-belief kind of day for Tony.
These make a wish organizations are complete garbage! They provide these wishes to people who have problems or issues. I am quite sure there are plenty of people both men and women young and old, kids of all ages that would love to drive or ride in a Corvette that are normal people that dont have any issues.
It’s sad when you see a kid or a adult dealing with a terminal illness but these are not the only people that should be allowed to get their wish come true.
The grant these wishes to people with issues instead of normal people without issues because they grab headlines!
If your going to run a wish organization then hand out the wishes to all people! Not just people who are down on their luck!
Boy Brian did somebody do something in your Cornflakes
He actually poops in his own cornflakes each day.
I just see life differently than you do! I am not a sheep that just follows along with how other people think! We live in a world where everybody is supposed to be treated equally and this is a example of that not happening!
You support it because you dont want people to think negative thoughts about you! Which tells me that people like you have little to no self esteem!
Brian @ 5:16PM
Wow. I fear for you. Life has a strange way of turning situations around on people so that all the sudden they understand. In this case, for instance, so that they’ll understand what Tony O’Hara is going through at this moment. Call it God, or karma, or some rule of the universe but it happens. I’ve both experienced it and witnessed it. Remember that.
First of all GOD doesn’t exist, second karma is a joke, and three the universe is way to big to even give a dam about me let alone anyone else. Especially you!
If something bad happens to me then it will be my fault! I don’t blame other people of made up things for my struggles like blaming bad things on the devil!
So please dont act like you care about me! In fact I don’t need or want you to. I am a big boy and I can take care of myself. And if one day I have a personal problem that I cant fix then that’s why they have doctors!
Anything else we need to go over?
SMH, as usual you never post a comment that doesn’t somehow denigrate someone or something. The Make a Wish Foundation and other organizations like them grant wishes to the terminally ill. The REASON the terminally ill might get their wish is that the no longer have the ability to make that ( wish ) happen due to their TERMINAL illness.
Those who are healthy have the possibility of making their own wishes come true. When you’re terminally ill they may grant you a wish, at the same time knowing that you have granted a wish to most people on this site,
Again you act like I come on this site to make friends! The wish should be made to anybody not just people with a illness!
Would it be ok if a organization only did things for people based on color, or gender? No it wouldn’t be acceptable but for some reason this is!
Perfectly healthy kids would love to be a ball boy for a professional team during one game. They cant because they dont have a illness which is wrong!
It takes backbone to have a opinion that goes against everybody else in the room! Some people are just followers! I am not!
No, I’m sure most just wonder what happened to you that you turned out to be such a douche bag. You always come back with such witty replies (LOL), makes me feel like Cat torturing a mouse. But at least you gave some clues, The Girl Scouts wouldn’t let you join, Major League Players didn’t like you and Mom couldn’t get out the tobacco stains, and you still haven’t received your NAACP award.
Tough life. Oh it doesn’t take any backbone, just a whole lot of ignorance based on your comments.
Dear Brian
Thanks a lot for your profound thoughts. I think you are not right and I will explain you why not. I am Swiss, a huge Corvette fan, driving a C6 Grand Sport. It happens time by time that I come back to my car from a walk or shopping and people are standing around it, enyoing the design, asking questions about the engine etc. Well, as a Swiss, we are part of this car as Louis Chevrolet was Swiss and founder of the Chevrolet Company and I tell people about the history of the Corvette and the white Swiss cross on red ground as part of the Corvette crossed race flag sign. After a certain time, I decided to make more: In the trunk, I always have two die-cast models of a yellow Grand Sport with me and some USB-stickers with professional video-clips, racing pictures and a comprehensive summary of the history of Corvette. It’s always a big pleasure for me to make a gift for really interested kids and to see their joy. Some of them, I let as well sit in the car and to start the engine if their parents agree. With adults, it is a little bit more complicated as you can’t know a person after a minute or so and whether you can take someone spontaneosly with you for a ride in your Corvette without a finally bad surprise. So Brian, you are too strict in case of the Southeast Missouri Corvette-Club. This club and its members don’t harm anyone but show a very nice sign of humanity and solicitousness with their action, which gives joy for everyone, not only for Mr Ohara. We can’t save the world but if you have sometimes a chance to do something positive or even outstanding, then you should do it.
Dude if you think you a bigger chevy fan than me then you are mistaken! And unlike you I dont beg people to be my friend!
You let anybody and everybody drool all over your Corvette, congratulations but that’s not me! Case in point I have a 70 Chevy C10 Short Bed 383/700R4 (I hope you know what a C10 is), I was working on it in the garage on day and the next door neighbor comes over and says. My grandson (5 years old) has something he wants to ask you. I said ok, his grandson come into the garage and said can I go for a ride in your truck? I looked down at this little boy and said NO! My truck is not a amusement park ride! The little kid ran back to the neighbors house. The old guy said if I knew that was going to be the answer I wouldn’t have had him come over. I told him you shouldn’t of assumed I was going to say yes!
Like I said before I am a different person than most, I am not going to kiss a person’s back side just so he can be my friend!
So you go ahead and do everything you can to make the people around you happy and I’ll stick to wrenching on my truck!
Have a nice day!
Brian,
Hans replied to you with a perfectly calm, polite and normal comment and you reply with some moronic dim-witted comment about who is the bigger Chevy fan while making assumptions about his personality and character (unlike you I don’t beg people to be my friend”.
1. “Dude if you think you a bigger chevy fan than me then you are mistaken!
This is not a competition. Stop making it one.
To date, there is no quantifiable way to determine “who is the biggest Chevy fan”… so your comment is factually baseless.
2. “And unlike you I dont beg people to be my friend!”
You’re reaching and you know it. You don’t know Hans yet you are making conclusions about him personality or demeanor.
I’ve just about had enough of your absurdity. Your comments make GM Authority not a good place to enjoy our content. Consider this a warning. The next step is a ban.
No problem, you do realize that there are people on this site who call me names, tell me my thoughts are ridiculous, and make conclusions about my personality and I dont see them getting warnings about getting banned!
So because I like to follow GM as much as i do i will stick to the topic of cars and trucks.
I am sorry my comments lead to you having to take time out of your day to address this.
This site should treat all people equally and I am not sure that is happening.
I would love to have a private conversation with you about this topic. I’ll give you my email if you want it!
Thanks Alex.
I for one appreciated Hans’ comments. He offers unique perspective so to Hans, thanks for your insight. I think it would be inappropriate of me to apologize to him on behalf of Brian so I won’t do that. I would, however, like to say to Hans that most Americans are kind, considerate, and thoughtful so I hope you won’t think otherwise of us.
Hey Ci2Eye, no problem, thanks for your message. Brian likes to provocate so let him play this role 😉
Thanks Alex for your support. But it’s no problem. Brian just seems to be an aficionado for provocations … 😉
Ha, ha, nice story with your truck and the little boy :-))) But I don’t believe it …
You are the born agitator Brian, but look, it’s not about you and it’s not about me. It’s about the nice gesture of a Corvette Club and Mr Ohara. They are doing great and that’s the only important thing.
You should. True story. I am learning what comments I can and cant make on this site. I would still like to have that conversation with you Alex.
Don’t worry Bri Bri, most people probably believe it is true, except you were the 5 year old kid and your neighbor had already figured you out and what you would become. Shame on Grandpa for not taking corrective action.
Now quit bugging Alex, if you cannot figure out what is appropriate adult behavior on this site no mentoring is going to help.
Corrective action?
As for being a adult, your right it’s to bad we cant speak our mind. Being treated like a adult is a thing of the past.
I guess I have to learn how to talk like the masses. Agree with what everybody is saying so I dont offend anybody.
Have a nice day!
Brian,
This guy isn’t merely someone who is “down on their luck” as you stated, he is terminally ill meaning he likely only has a short time left on the planet. Anyone else presumably has many years left to fulfill their dreams so I don’t think any special consideration should be given to the rest of us to make our lifelong wishes come true. In theory, we have years to make dreams come true ourselves. However, each of us will reach a point where time is running out and for many that time comes as a sudden, shocking, surprise much earlier than they ever imagined. In those scenarios, people understandably want to pack as much of life into their remaining days as possible and fulfill remaining dreams.
There was no indication in the above article that any kind of ‘Make-a-Wish’ organization was involved. I’m not sure where you got that from. Rather, caring hospice workers took it upon themselves to try and make Mr. Ohara’s wish come true and compassionate Corvette owners that are members of the Southeast Missouri Corvette Club stepped up to help.
I applaud everyone involved. I hope this afternoon is magical and my thoughts will certainly be with Tony Ohara and all those “plastic fantastic” sports cars this afternoon.