Dream big, drive fast, do good: Helping kids make meaningful memories

When life gives you lemons, make lemonade—and when life gives you Ferraris, make dreams come true. While exhibiting at a car show about ten years ago, Portland sports car collector Eric Peterson noticed that kids kept gathering around his Ferrari, eyes wide with wonder. It made sense: he’d brought a sleek, red 599 GTB Fiorano with dazzling curves, leather interior, and a 620-horsepower engine. However, adults at the event, who would be voting for Best in Show, seemed drawn to a nearby McLaren.

Peterson decided he would let the young fans get a closer look. “Hey, do you want to sit in the front seat?” he’d ask the kids. They could put their hands on the steering wheel and press the horn. “The only thing I ask is that you ask your mom and dad to consider voting for us,” he’d add. Before he knew it, kids were clamoring for their parents to come vote for the Ferrari. And it might have won had the McLaren owner not immediately embraced the same tactic. Nevertheless, the experience would lead Peterson to a much bigger idea.

The following year, Peterson and his wife Amity founded Dream Drives for Kids, a nonprofit that allows sick and injured children to zip around the Pacific Northwest’s scenic highways in revved-up rides. By this fall, some 150 kids and young adults will have taken a ride with Peterson in one of the exotic European sports cars in the Dream Drives collection.

And it’s quite a collection. A tech author and consultant, Peterson started out buying a Porsche to celebrate the success of his first book. After he successfully launched a consulting firm, he got his first Ferrari. Over the past fifteen years, he’s bought and sold more than 30 high-end cars, including a Superformance replica Shelby Cobra, a Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder, and a “horribly named but awfully fun to drive” McLaren MP4-12C. His current collection includes a Maserati, a Ferrari, and 15 Porsches—but who’s counting.

Obviously, it’s a big deal to insure a collection of that size and scope—more so when kids are involved—and when the Petersons first launched Dream Drives, there were doubts such an undertaking would be feasible. Instead, they found support wherever they looked. Their insurance broker, Marsh McLennan Agency Sales Executive Garrett Hall, was also in their corner was able to cover all the vehicles as part of the nonprofit. He opined, “Really, all you're doing is taking a new friend for a ride in your car, right?”

“Eric loves his cars, and he genuinely loves using those vehicles to bring happiness to people,” says Hall. “He's constantly having a positive impact with these kids and putting them in a place where they can just enjoy life for a bit—you see the pure happiness. It's cool to be able to make sure that the insurance side's taken care of, then get to see all the fun that comes with it.”