For most Mustang enthusiasts, the modern Shelby GT500 is the holy grail. Many will seek it, but few will experience its prowess. Fewer still will own one that further ascends to performance glory after being upgraded by Shelby American. However, you could have a shot at owning such a car for just $25 and help assist cancer research in the process.
That is just what could happen if you purchase entries in the latest Cruise For A Cause raffle, which will award a one-off 2021 Shelby GT500SE sprayed in Infinite Blue with black striping to the lucky winner. If you aren’t familiar, Cruise for a Cause is the passion project of its Founder and Director Dan Neve, who experienced two life-altering health scares, which inspired him to take up the cause.
“After my wife and mother were diagnosed a little over a month apart in 2010 and a new 2010 Shelby GT500 was joining our family, I decided to use the car to raise awareness and to hopefully raise $10,000 in support of breast cancer research. It was during that first year that I met the Shelby American team as well as Carroll and was then asked to display the car out at SEMA,” Neve explained. “My plan was to do this for one year and then do like most in the midwest and only drive it on sunny days. But after that first year, things changed forever. We became a full 501c3 non-profit so that we can make sure all of the funds raised support research and doing the most good possible.”
“Our current mission is to support cancer research across the board. We have mainly focused on breast and prostate cancer over the years and they will still be our main focus,” Neve said.
For more than a decade, Neve travelled over 150,000 miles and raised $500,000 to fund treatments and seek a cure for the disease that hit him so close to home.
“Our current mission is to support cancer research across the board. We have mainly focused on breast and prostate cancer over the years and they will still be our main focus,” Neve said. “But this year we have launched a new program in partnership with Middleton Ford in Wisconsin to offer any Ford vehicle as a special HOPE Edition model. From Escapes to F-150s, you can have your Hope Edition built in a color scheme to support the cancer you would like to make an impact in. We are excited with the possibilities and the good we can do.”
Pushing toward those possibilities, this year’s promotion will award a unique 2021 Shelby GT500SE to its winner on Nov 19, 2021.
“With the limited availability of traveling last year and so many events being cancelled I needed to start to think of creative ways to continue to make a difference. One of those ways was with the creation of the online Mustangs On A Mission: The Experience event we held in August. The other was by working with a company to offer a sweepstakes that we could make our prize drawing available to anyone across the country without having to travel to shows,” Neve said. “With the 2021 GT500 about to begin production and with Chuck Polly at Middleton Ford saying if he could get an added allocation from Ford then let’s make that our prize for this year’s sweepstake. With a call to my friend Jim Owens at Ford and then a follow up call to Shelby American and Gary Patterson, the prize not only was going to be a new GT500 but a full Carbon Package Shelby American Signature Edition with our making it the only Signature HOPE Edition being built for 2021.
