Dream Cruise rolls forward with private donations

By Andrea Zarczynski
C & G Staff Writer

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP — The world’s largest one-day automotive event, the Woodward Dream Cruise, was stalling after reportedly losing $50,000 from a sponsor.

That’s until 52-year-old Bloomfield Township resident Greg Brown matched the funds through a personal donation.

“I love the Woodward Dream Cruise and felt I could make a difference. I feel very happy that I did it because it made a difference. I’m surprised other people didn’t stand up. There are people in this town that make $100,000 a day.”

Brown said he heard about the decline in sponsorship on the radio while driving one morning. The problem needed to be fixed because the cruise brings tourism, publicity and revenue, he said.

“I felt I could become part of a great news story,” said Brown, president of Benlee Manufacturing in Romulus, which makes roll-off trailers used to carry large trash bins used for construction and recycling.

His donation helped fund police and cleanup crews that were to be cut in various local communities after the sponsorship decline, Brown said. All donations received by the Dream Cruise are placed into an umbrella organization that distributes funds to the nine member communities as needed.

Joel Epstein, executive director of the 2007 Dream Cruise, has been involved in the automotive event for the past three years and said that he has never before witnessed such a private donation made to the cruise. Because of his donation, Brown has reportedly become a 2007 sponsor of the Dream Cruise and will be recognized and be included in local cruise-related events throughout the summer.

“We do have some nice corporate sponsors, but Greg did this in a spontaneous moment … from his heart,” Epstein said.  “Times are tough in the Detroit metro area, and we have the largest one-day automotive event in the world. It’s a matter of getting the word out regionally and nationally.”

It is reported that after Brown made his donation, one of his customers, David Mardigian, president of MCM Management Corp. in Bloomfield Hills, made a donation for an unspecified amount.

Representatives of the Dream Cruise reportedly called Brown to thank him for jump-starting donations. Before the Dream Cruise donation, the most dollars that Brown had ever given at one time was $5,000.

Brown grew up in metro Detroit and has been attending the Dream Cruise since it originated. Today he can be spotted along Woodward Avenue driving his 1966 maroon Ford Mustang convertible.

“The good feeling that the cruise brings to the area and the good publicity that it brings — we could use some of that,” he said.

Brown lives with his wife, Nancy Brown, an education professor at Oakland University in Rochester. The couple has two daughters, Jessica and Adrienne, who graduated from Cranbrook School.

“Greg has been in the area for a long time and sees and understands this is a unique event,” Epstein said. “There is no place like Detroit. Everyone seems to have a classic car stashed in their garage. It’s an amazing thing.”