Joe Mehling had never held a car auction before Thursday.
That’s when the Dave White Chevrolet executive manager ventured into an unknown territory to auction three classic cars to honor a late friend and benefit homeless veterans by donating all the proceeds to Veterans Matter, a national nonprofit with its offices in Toledo.
The 1966 Corvette, 1965 Oldsmobile Cutlass convertible, and 1966 Oldsmobile Cutlass 4-4-2 formerly were owned by close friend Gary Shores.
“Gary cared a lot about the veterans and a lot about this country. So, I thought it was only right ... to try to help Gary's legacy, which is huge here,” Mr. Mehling said Friday, adding that he had the dealership purchase the cars to be auctioned off.
Mr. Shores, a Toledo radio personality who consistently topped drive-time ratings for more than four decades, died Feb. 19 at ProMedica Ebeid Hospice Residence, Sylvania, after a long battle with pulmonary fibrosis. He was 71.
“I think we're going to do very well,” Mr. Mehling said when asked about his auction expectations. “But this is unknown territory for us. We've never done anything like this at the dealerships.”
The idea to donate the auction proceeds to Veterans Matter came from Andrew Stuart, president and chief executive officer of Stuart Media Strategies, Mr. Mehling said.
“He thought that helping the homeless veterans was something that every American citizen ought to do because of the sacrifices that they made on our behalf,” Mr. Stuart said Friday.
He added that Mr. Shores used to work for him when he was vice president and marketing manager of the Cumulus Radio Station Group in Toledo, the owner of the WKKO-FM 99.9 (K-100) radio station.
Mr. Shores, whose legal name was Gary H. Hoffar, signed off from his K-100 morning show in May, 2019, when he learned he had idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a condition in which lung tissue becomes progressively damaged.
“We were doing the work with Veterans Matter to help promote them locally, in our capacity as radio people,” Mr. Stuart said. “We did fund-raisers and public service announcements for them.”
Shawn Clark, Veterans Matter chief operating officer, said the auction is very important, “both to honor Mr. Shores’ memory and to help veterans who are experiencing homelessness get into housing.”
"This is an amazing opportunity,” Ms. Clark said of the auction. “These guys shouldn’t have to worry about sleeping on the streets, and this auction is going to help ensure that they don’t.”
Ms. Clark said that while the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has dedicated teams to locate homeless veterans and offers housing vouchers and medical assistance, an obstacle remains: Veterans require permanent housing, and the VA does not offer rental deposits, she said.
About $700 is all it takes for such a deposit, Ms. Clark said, adding that about 91 percent of all veterans housed remain housed and 91 cents of every dollar raised goes to rental deposits.
In its 12 years of operation, Veterans Matter has housed more than 7,000 veterans and an additional 3,000 wives and children across the country, she said.
Each car was appraised by an independent firm, according to the dealership. The auction is taking place on Proxibid.com. It runs through Wednesday.
Cumulus Media and their radio stations — K100, WRQN-FM 93.5, WXKR-FM 94.5, and 100.7-FM ESPN the Ticket — helped promote the auction.
A link to the auction is available at tinyurl.com/2p86pzz7.
First Published May 26, 2023, 10:47 p.m.
