The Buffalo Auto Show opens today. It is a family friendly event and there is something for everyone.
The New York State Troopers will once again be at the Buffalo Auto Show. Mel and Emily talked with Trooper Jim O’Callaghan. Jim says that they are hiring and if you are interested in becoming a trooper apply now at joinstatepolice.ny.gov. You can take the test up until April 30th and you get to choose your date, choose your time at a testing site all across, not just here in Western New York State but all over the world. Trooper O’Callaghan says if you are overseas, maybe military, and you want to take that, go for it.
The New York State Troopers are also here for safety. Trooper O’Callaghan says we get a lot of car seat questions, every year we get brand new parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles that maybe take their nieces and nephew places. Questions like, what is the appropriate car seat for your car, at what age to you put them in different car seats, are they forward facing or rear facing and so they get a lot of questions and Trooper O’Callaghan says they have car seat techs here the whole time. He says we have actual car seats here so we can say this is what you need, this is what you need to check.
Emily spoke with Betty Murphy, executive vice president with the Niagara Frontier Auto Dealers Association (NFADA) and Natalie Barnhard with The Motion Project. Betty says we established The New Car Dealers of Western New York Charitable Foundation back in 1999 and we have two fundraisers each year, our charity preview party that kicks off this amazing auto show and a charity golf tournament and then we have other programs that freed into the foundation. She goes on to say through the foundation, after last night’s grant announcement including Natalie’s grant it brings our total distribution since the foundations, inception to almost three million dollars. Last night alone they gave over $400,000 to local organizations that take care of our own Western New York Community.
Natalie Barnhard, from The Motion Project says we are just so grateful; this award means so much to us and it is truly going to help our brand new recovery center and will help so many people with neurological injuries or disorders in the Western New York community. Natalie says up until now people in Western New York had to leave the area. She says after my injury in 2004, I had great care at ECMC but you need more specialized rehabilitation, so I had spent almost a decade in Atlanta and I know a lot of people who had to leave WNY; now they can stay and we can also bring people here from out of the region as well. She goes on to say this grant is going toward our amazing local mat which is a piece of equipment that can help both adults and children relearn to walk with robotics. Natalie say you can tailor the treatment for each individual and they can progress, so there are all kinds of sensors in the unit to see how much motion the person is doing on their own so as they progress and get better, you can decrease motor support so they can do more on their own and eventually that will help neuro regeneration so they can just relearn to walk and even just the psychological benefits of that; to see yourself up and standing and moving again is so good. Natalie says we are so grateful to the New Car Dealers of WNY for this grant.
This grant was one of six grants selected. Betty Murphy says the other grant they gave out last night was $40,000 to the Teachers Desk to build a portico so that teachers in under-served communities picking up necessary school supplies can do so safely and efficiently.
Betty says the grant for The Motion Project was $250,000, So it’s $50, 000 a year, last night and every February. So when you come to the Auto Show and support this show, and the new car dealers of Western New York, they support the community with grants like this.
Mel and Emily spoke with Charlie Keller, board member, NFADA. Charlie says in our industry we are used to having four or five hundred vehicles on the grounds so people can come check them out; we have all the makes, we have all the models we just don’t have four or five hundred of them, we have seventy-five or eighty of them. He says people don’t need to worry about the fact that there aren’t cars out there, they need to go see the dealerships, they need to go to the franchises they want to go to. He says if you are looking for a Chevrolet you need to come to Keller Chevrolet, they need to come out and take a look at what we’ve got and we have vehicles coming in on a daily basis so if you are looking for a particular model what you looking for we have them coming in so we can show you what we’ve got and you can actually preorder your vehicle right at the dealership.
When you are here you can check out all the new models. Charlie Keller says every manufacturer has come out with new models; General Motors probably has 12 new models here, Ford has the new Bronco here, Dodge has a couple of vehicles here, the Power Wagon. He says things you usually don’t see at the show room are here at this particular event so if you are looking for the vehicles and they even have antique cars here
Tickets for the 2022 Buffalo Auto Show are available at Buffaloautoshow.com
Discount Tickets available at Tops, Dash’s and Consumer Beverage and a portion of each sale, benefits local charities through New Car Dealers of WNY.
