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Community Buys, Donates 1973 Pontiac Parisienne to Raise Money for Orphaned Kids

In May this year, a young couple from Red Deer, Canada, was killed in a motorcycle crash. Their 2 children are now being raised by the paternal grandparents – and they just got a massive show of support from the community.
Brent and Nicole Keryluke with their kids and the 1973 Pontiac Parisienne 8 photos
Photo: CBC.ca / Keryluke family
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A GoFundMe campaign has already helped Ben and Marilyn deal with their son and daughter-in-law’s death and take proper care of their 2 children, age 3 and 6, respectively. They still could only make ends meet, though, so over the weekend, they decided to sell the classic car their late son had spent years working on.

Brent and Nicole Keryluke died when the motorcycle they were driving smashed into a truck. Brent had bought the 1973 Pontiac Parisienne many years back and had spent a lot of money and time working on it, because he wanted to pass it on to his son, when he grew up.

Pressed for cash, his dad, Ben, decided to part ways with the car. It wasn’t something he wanted to do because he wanted to honor Brent’s wish and have his grandson drive it one day, but he saw no other way around it. And that’s where the good people of Red Deer stepped in.

You can see video of the auction at the bottom of the page. The car was sold for $29,000 – and then the most amazing thing happened: it was donated back, and sold again. And again, and again.

“They basically stopped the auction, let everybody know what was happening, where the money was going to go, and then we were shocked what happened after that,”
Ben tells Global News. “The car was sold for $29,000 and then was donated back. Then it was sold for $30,000 and donated back. Then it went for $20,000 and donated back again.”

The third buyer, Bob Bevins from Bulldog Metals, decided to give the car back to the family, thus honoring Brent’s wish of passing it on to his son.

“It had way more sentimental value to that family than me owning another classic car, so I thought maybe someday, that young man will be able to drive his father’s car,” Bevins explains for the same media outlet. At the end of the auction, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house, he adds.

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
Elena Gorgan profile photo

Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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