respectfully submitting a thought regarding a memorial fund for ben, lj's family....
 

Even to someone as new to this forum as i, i think that it would be impossible to not be effected in some way by this tragedy, we are all appreciative of ben, lj's contributions to this great forum, and i'm sure we all have the utmost of sypathy for his family that is left here on earth to try and deal with this tragedy,

Even though most of the members of this forum will never meet face to face, it is moments like this that make us stop and think about one another, and that at the most basic of levels we are connected to each other through our love of sports cars, but also that we share a bond as human beings with a general respect for one another on this forum and for our's and other's families in times of need.

Member tuuner stated regarding Ben's memorial this coming saturday "I have been in phone contact with friends that are very close to Ben and they are overwhelmed by the outpouring of condolences on this board. I am keeping them apprised of our intentions on Saturday at CC. After the vigil, the crew will take a controlled drive down PCH in honor of Ben. We will have some form of distinguishing tag (i.e. commemorative sticker, etc) to place on the cars."

i am just thinking out loud here, so please don't flame if you don't agree, but is there some way that all members and especially members that are not able to be on the west coast to pay their respects can be involved, maybe it would be a nice gesture if through the purchase of, and i quote tuuner here, "some form of distinguishing tag (i.e. commemorative sticker, etc)" a fund can be setup for ben's family and especially his young daughter.

i may be way overstepping my bounds here, but with the amount of members that we have here, we can make a sizeable donation for ben's young family that unfortunately will be forced in the very near future to try and pick up the pieces in the wake of this terrible accident.

respectfully thinking out loud,

mike sienkiewicz
boston, ma

it's not about money & certainly it can't bring him back. money is not an issue for him & probably will never be. unless his family is asking or needing i'd vote to leave money out of it for now.

Agreed. We certainly appreciate the effort and concern. Similarly, I am sure his wife appreciates immensely as well.

If there is a need for a monetary fund, we will definitely comunicate that to the board. Everyhing is so dynamic right now that I can't really determine if there is a need at this point.

Once again, thanks so much. What an awesome gesture.

Thomas

I think in time we can create some sort of memorial book or album as someone mentioned, something his daughter can look at or read growing up to know how well loved and respected her father was. I'm sure his wife isn't ready for something like this yet but perhaps it is something we can put together in the coming months. I'm sure there will be volunteers to help do something of this sort, and we can create a fund to make it something that will be a quality keepsake for his family.

I may not be an active poster, but I am a very active reader on this forum. Ben's comments were some of the most insightful and funny on 6speed. My condolences to his family.

That is a great idea.

we could also do a memorial fund for some sort of charity...maybe something having to do with other children that have lost parents and aren't as financially secure as I hope Ben's wife and child are.

great idea scott, for starters someone with a bunch of paper should print out the responses to the threads Ryan started in order to preserve them in case ry's server went down etc etc.

I'm sure parker would really appreciate reading all the outpouring at the appropriate time.

We All Miss You ben ......
 

I Agree with you ..... It's never about money.

Let think of something we post for him in this forum ..... something that will help us ALL remember him every day, like his logo or even his name on the (maine page) of this grate forum .....

We all loved him, and will allways do....

Bandar

I don't know how this would be received, but I was thinking of having the July 1 track day become " In memory of Ben ". (or something like that?)

We could all put stickers on our cars and do one lap with all the cars around the track in memory of Ben!

What are everyone's thoughts on this?

Above is a post from Super D. I reached out to him last night because of his relationship with Ben. He suggested the above idea of what we can do to honor Ben's memory. I also spoke with Darren and Shank, they agreed to let me start a collection so that we may send flowers. The members I spoke with stated that they wanted to do this, so instead of doing it separately, I figured let pull together and and send the flowers as a family (The 6speed family). I will post the information on a separate thread.

Another idea would be to have members of each area gather together simultaneously across the country.

In regards to the album, I think it is a wonderful idea. In order to do it right I would rely on ALL members on the board to contribute.

On a side note, I spoke with a Ferrari buddy last night about Ben. He didn't make the connection of Ben to Ben LJ for several mins into the conversation. When he did, he stated the following. "OMG you are talking about Ben LJ?" "Yes" I replied. He said "I knew him, I have spoken with him" I asked what about, he said "tech information".... I replied, "Yes, that's Ben, I spoke with him in regards to a brake upgrades for my car."

Just shows that Ben was always one to help and share his experiences.

That is a good idea. I would definately be up for that especially if I dont end up making it to the west coast for the vigil.

That would be a very nice tribute Fred. I would absolutely support something like that... Race car drivers do that sort of thing and I think it'd be a nice gesture.

i'm going to put a little piece of black electrical tape on the lower corner of my license plate - a sorta memorial sticker

Fred I think Ben would have loved that, kudos to you for putting together things like that.