Long known as an organization that gives back, with $96 million in charitable donations on the books since the company was formed, Barrett-Jackson recently announced its first-ever, year-long charity drive, DrivenHearts. “This is the first time in the company’s history that we’ve run a single initiative across all four auctions to raise money for a single cause,” said Craig Jackson, Chairman and CEO of Barrett-Jackson.

Jackson, himself a noted philanthropist, chose a cause that hits close to home, selecting the American Heart Association as the recipient of this year’s charity initiative. “Heart disease is the number one killer of Americans. In recent years, we have lost a lot of beloved members of our car collecting community due to heart-related diseases,” explained Jackson.

However, it’s not just a matter of raising money and writing a check for the team at Barrett-Jackson. With this initiative, they are working to use their significant resources to raise awareness for the American Heart Association and cardiac health in general. “It’s not just about the money we raise and donate,” Jackson said. “We hope the DrivenHearts hashtag will generate a lot of traffic on social media and bring a spotlight to the American Heart Association. We felt it was time we stepped up and did something.”

Barrett-Jackson is heavily promoting the Driven Hearts hashtag to help bring awareness to the year-long American Heart Association campaign.

To that end, the team at Barrett-Jackson is hands-on helping the cause in a large way. “Part of this is that we have lost some great customers in avoidable situations. Their deaths could have been avoided, just through awareness and people learning the signs and how to react” said Jackson. “On Family Values Day, we will be teaching CPR classes at the event. We recently went to a local high school, took some of our cars and taught the entire senior class CPR. The more people who know the signs of an impending emergency and know CPR, the more lives will be saved.”

At the 2018 Scottsdale auction, Jackson will be auctioning off a vehicle that is extremely special to his family, to kick off the donations. “We’ll be spearheading the initiative by auctioning off my 1988 Chevrolet 35th Anniversary edition Corvette,” explained Jackson. “This car was given to my mother and I by Dave Ressler for Barrett-Jackson’s 35th anniversary and I taught my children, Shelby especially, to drive in this car, and she’ll be driving it up onto the block.”

The Jackson Family’s 1988 35th anniversary Chevy Corvette, which was a gift from a longtime friend on the company’s 35th anniversary, will be auctioned for the American Heart Association.

Scheduled to go across the block at approximately 5:30pm on Saturday, January 20, 100-percent of the proceeds from that sale will go to the American Heart Association. “In fact the winning bidder for the car will write the check directly to the American Heart Association, and get the tax writeoff for it, as well,” Jackson said.

In addition to the campaign for heart disease awareness and the American Heart Association, there will be charity auctions for a number of other organizations throughout the nine-day event, including: Jordan Vocational High School, the Mayshad Foundation, Childhelp, TGen Foundation, Hope For Heroes, National Medal of Honor Museum Foundation, The Royal Canadian Legion, Boy’s Republic, Bush Center Military Service Initiative, Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, and the Autism Society of North Carolina/IGNITE. “We are at the $96 million mark [of funds donated] so far, and we really hope to go over the $100 million mark by the end of the auction this week,” said Jackson.

The chrome-wrapped Bugatti Veyron will be displayed with the FAST signage throughout the year to promote the acronym for the warning signs of a stroke. Facial Drooping, Arm weakness, Speech difficulties, Time to call 911.