Fancy a ride?

This Sunday 7 September, don’t miss your chance to climb into a supercar, one of those exceptional machines that tear up the tracks and that you sometimes hear revving their engines on the motorway. The 2014 supercar experience day, organised by members of CERN, will allow car lovers to go for a ride in style and all for a good cause!

 

Supercars at the 2013 experience day. Photo: Kevin Mazzilli.

If you have always dreamt of sitting in a Ferrari, feeling the vibrations of a Lamborghini, or losing yourself in the hushed calm of a classic car, don’t miss the supercar experience day taking place on Sunday, 7 September! This event has been organised by CERN’s own car enthusiasts, in collaboration with the charity Kumansansa – Children of Zambia, founded by two CERN members. It will take place for the third consecutive year in the car park of the Macumba leisure centre in Saint-Julien-en-Genevois (France).

From 9.30 a.m. to 6 p.m., visitors old and young (children’s car seats will be available), will have the opportunity to settle into these exceptional cars next to seasoned drivers for a roughly twelve-kilometre ride of discovery. This year, approximately 50 models will be showcased(1). Tickets will be on sale on the day with prices from 10 EUR each. As in previous years, all profits will go to Kumansansa – Children of Zambia. This organisation, whose main goal is to provide schooling for children, currently funds the secondary and higher education of about 30 young people from impoverished families.

A group of young people educated by Kumansansa in Chipata.

“With the funds collected from the 2012 and 2013 driving experience days, the organisation has been able to fund the purchase of a field for the inhabitants of a poor area of Chipata, a town in eastern Zambia, as part of a food for education programme, with the aim of testing the cultivation of soya as an alternative to corn," explains François Butin, CERN staff member and one of the organisers of the 2014 supercar experience day. Thanks to these funds, the organisation has also been able to finance the construction of four pig-sheds and has given a pair of pigs to a few families in exchange for their daughters’ education. These families have then, in turn, offered a pair of piglets to other families, who will repeat the process. Lastly, to allow the female students of the Mfuwe region to attend classes even during their periods(2), the organisation has also funded the construction of girls-only toilets in the region’s secondary school.

A word on safety: the supercar experience day will be under the watchful eye of Annemasse’s motorway police, who will be happy to showcase their own emergency vehicle and to remind participants of road safety rules. 


 (1)For more information on the supercar experience day and to see the list of the cars which will be showcased, click here.

(2)To find out more about the daily life of girls in Zambia, click here.

by Anaïs Schaeffer