THE STORY BEHIND THE ASHLEY CUP
My Daughter Ashley passed away in a car accident in June of 2012. I was on my way to work, when I received a phone call from my brother telling me I need to get to the hospital. When I arrived, the doctor told me that my daughter had been in an accident where she was trapped in her seatbelt, upside down, underwater, and unconscious for more than 5 minutes. He also told me that the chances of her survival were a million to one.
During the 4 days at the hospital in intensive care, I had this incredible urge to make a video of Ashley. I think that is partially due to the fact that the doctor told me when I first arrived at the hospital that the chances of her making it were a million to one. I wanted to have video clips pics etc etc in the video, but in the chaos of standard issues involved and fighting off the media I did not have time or the resources to round up video clips, so I got the next best thing.
Some of Ashley’s closest friends were there and I had my laptop with me. I asked them to grab their favorite pics that they have of Ashley on their facebook pages and put them in a folder on my laptop. I picked out 2 songs from the backstreet boys for 3 different reasons.
Reason #1 Ashley loved Backstreet boys.
Reason #2 The fond memories of when I took her to see them in concert.
Reason #3 The lyrics to both of songs explained exactly how i was feeling.
The idea of the video was not only to vent, but then we all would have a video to look back and remember our good times with Ashley. We played the video at Ashley’s services. My good friend and EgyptSean Productions photographer Jesse DeGraff was there taking pictures and video for me. I had the idea of making another video of her services. Just another way for me to vent my emotions.
Fast forward to about a month later….. I woke up on a Saturday morning and decided to go thru the video clips and pictures from the services. I ended up remixing the photo slide show by adding pics and video from her services and changed the song to Ashley’s favorite karaoke song…”IMMORTAL” by Evenessence. My intention was to upload the video and share with the world but after I watched it about 10 times in a row I decided not to upload it and just left it on my computer.
A few weeks later I was sitting at my computer and pulled up the file. As I was watching with tears rolling down my face, I started thinking about the good times and I remembered the time that Ashley asked my to bring out rc cars to help with a Chili’s St. Judes fundraiser. Then the light bulb went off in my head! THE ASHLEY CUP RACE!!! It was in that moment I knew what I had to do!!! I uploaded the remix video and posted it on facebook but still could not find it in me to make it public on YouTube. As the Ashley Cup event started taking shape, I eventually came to terms with the video and made it public for the world to see. ALL OF THE PROCEEDS FROM THE ASHLEY CUP EVENTS ARE DONATED TO ST JUDE CHILDREN’S RESEARCH HOSPITAL IN ASHLEY’S NAME.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO THE EVENT ON THE ST JUDES WEBSITE
Ashley Garcia Photo Tribute Remix
At the first Ashley cup event we had 96 5th scale entries and raised over $7,400 for the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. With the success of the first event, we decided to make it annual event.
At the Ashley Cup 2, we added 1/8 scale nitro to the event and had a great mix of 8th and 5th scale entries. We also added a family fun day of misc fun events for Sunday such as a balloon race and a run what you brung. While the total raised amount for the event was $6,400 ( a little lower than the first year), the attendance grew to about 400 people including a couple of local news station. You can see one of the clips from CBS news 8 HERE And a clip from KUSI NEWS HERE
The Ashley Cup 3 was held at Glen Helen Raceway in San Bernadino, CA and was a 2 day race event with qualifiers on Saturday and mains on Sunday. We also added 8th scale electric to the classes. For the first time at an Ashley cup event we had a live band that played on Saturday night to help everyone relax after a long day of racing.
Altho the event had a smaller attendance then the previous year, the total amount raised increased to $8,500. We had a bouncy house for the kids all weekend, a rock wall on saturday, Cow RC did 2 kit builds that were given away in a drawing and Hailo flooring did a drawing for a 5th scale. We also had a vendors row and Free lunch for everyone in attendance on sunday. The rock racer winners received plaques for their classes and for the 1st year we made 5th scale pit mats for the 5th scale 1st place winners. Another 1st for an Ashley cup event was MAV TV coming out to film the event. They had heard about previous events and contacted me asking if they could do a story about the Ashley Cup events. They came out on Saturday and i did an interview with them, which aired on MAV TV. To see the Mav tv interview click here We are proud to say that MAV TV has said they want to follow the Ashley cup every year.
With each passing year year the Ashley cup events evolve and grow. We Have already started planning the Ashley cup 4 and it looks like we might be adding airplanes this year. We look forward to bringing you the events for many years to come and continuing to raise money for St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. THANK YOU TO ALL OF THE SPONSORS WHO MAKE THIS EVENT POSSIBLE
Sean Garcia ( AKA) EgyptSean
The Ashley cup 4 found us back at Irvine Lake and back to a one day event. We Improved the graphics on the winners pit mats and for the first time we had Official ASHLEY CUP STICKERS.
The fifth scale by HAILO FLOORING that was given away at the Ashley cup 3 was brought back by the individual that won it to auction off again. HAILO FLOORING also made another truck to give away so we ended up giving two trucks away at the Ashley cup 4. The truck from AC 3 was driven at AC 4 then auctioned off.
Altho the Ashley Cup 4 was only a one day event it raised $8,210 for St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The Ashley cup 5 is already be planned and we look forward to having another great event next year.
Sincerely Sean Garcia AKA EgyptSean
