A town man’s hugely popular car show is benefitting New Canaan in new ways.
Long praised for the visitors it brings to town who then patronize downtown businesses and restaurants, the “Caffeine & Carburetors” antique and specialty car show that Doug Zumbach launched nearly 30 years ago outside his eponymous coffee shop on Pine Street now is raising tens of thousands of dollars for local nonprofit organizations.
On Wednesday, Zumbach—joined by Zumbach Coffee/C&C Director of Business Development Claire Drexler, and fellow C&C organizer Peter Bush—presented a $24,000 check to the Waveny Park Conservancy.
The funds were raised through the Oct. 20 C&C at Waveny. Zumbach runs two C&C’s per year, one downtown—that saw $16,000 raised for the New Canaan Community Foundation—and the other at the park.
Asked how he feels about the fundraising component of Caffeine & Carburetors, Zumbach said, “We’re very proud, and we’d like to thank a lot of the residents who contributed and as well as attended the event. We couldn’t have done it without a lot of our neighbors. And we had a lot of people from out of town come in. We’re just very proud of the reputation of the event as being one of the premier events in the tri-state area. And we like our new formula of raising funds for local nonprofit organizations. We’ll continue it into 2025 with our two events, which haven’t been scheduled yet, but they’re planned.”
Steve Boeschenstein, chair of the Conservancy’s board, said the organization is “extremely grateful for the donation,” which will go toward large projects such as woodlands restoration and planning for improvements to the Merritt Parkway trail…