Every year the Advocate Hospital’s Pediatric Department puts on the “Peds-in-the-Weeds” picnic for its current and past pediatric patients. This year 670 children attended, most with their parents in tow. The event is held in a forest preserve and most of the activities are provided by volunteers. For several years Reinout Vogt has persuaded some members of both Chicago MG clubs to bring their cars and give rides to children. Reinout likes to keep the number of MG’s to five. This year the participants were Reinout Vogt and his M-Type, Jeff Powell and his supercharged TC racer, Rich Meservey and his MGB, Andy Anderson and his TD, and Ray Costa and his Morris Minor Traveller.

We were ready to start giving rides at 12:30 PM and had a steady stream of passengers until 4:00 PM when the party wrapped up. Nobody counted the number of children who got rides, nor the number of questions they asked or the grins on their faces, but there were lots in all categories.

The weather started out as perfectly as was possible, however a dangerous storm blew through around 2:30 PM knocking down tents and causing people to scatter to the shelters in the park. We all ran to the MG tent and held it down until the wind and rain stopped. We were all thoroughly soaked. As soon as we could, we all dried out our cars and continued to give rides to the kids, who were also a bit damp.

One nice thing about bringing the Traveller was that rides could be given to groups of kids and even whole families at a time. Besides, a Morris Minor is almost an MG!

Despite the weather, we all had a great time and it was a pleasure to bring some additional happiness to children.

~~ Ray Costa