Car Culture Leans into Community Support
Paul Faleschini, UG2 engineering manager for Northern California, can’t stop smiling when he talks about his work with EuroSunday Sacramento. That enthusiasm is contagious—which is just one reason the organization’s community giving endeavors are having such a positive impact on local organizations.
EuroSunday has multiple chapters across the country which, since 2006, have been bringing together car and motorcycle enthusiasts for informal gatherings like their monthly Cars & Coffee events. Paul joined EuroSunday in 2019 and then started co-leading the Sacramento chapter with his good friend and colleague Mike Ritenour of NorCal Tree Management. The pair quickly recognized that their passionate community had a lot to give.
Mike had a longstanding involvement with the Shriners Hospitals for Children’s toy drive. It made sense to join the two organizations’ interests into one so they converted EuroSunday’s December cause into the Rally for Kids event — an opportunity for participants to support the hospital’s toy drive while also celebrating their fondness for cars. People stepped up in a big way, and they had so much success they’ve continued the tradition for 12 years running.
But they didn’t stop with the toy drive. It is now EuroSunday Sacramento’s practice to link many of their monthly events to a particular organization or cause, from breast cancer awareness in October to Stand Down’s support for veterans in honor of Memorial Day.
In November 2024, EuroSunday Sacramento’s second annual turkey drive collected more than 150 frozen turkeys for families in need in coordination with the Sacramento Food Back. EuroSunday participants even volunteered to deliver some families’ turkeys themselves. The following month, EuroSunday held a toy drive right at the Shriners Children’s hospital, combining it with a sort of car show for Shriners Hospital’s young patients. Several thousand cars passed through the hospital’s drive through for the kids to see, and participants donated over 16,000 toys in just four hours, allowing Shriners to fully replenish their stock of toys and ensure a gift for every patient.
As for the charity efforts’ success, Paul credits EuroSunday’s sponsors as well as the Sacramento community as a whole and the EuroSunday crowd in particular.
“I’ve been blessed enough with this career and the ability to participate in a hobby that I really enjoy, which is cars,” says Paul. “And rather than just owning fun cars and enjoying my hobby in a selfish way, I asked myself, How do I organize the car community to give back to those who aren’t as blessed? The Sacramento region is a big region but it is very much a community, and the car community is a very tight group. They are not shy about giving. We promote heavily on social media, and people know when EuroSunday holds these events, the cause is real, and they love to participate.”
We are so proud of the energy and commitment Paul brings to his work at UG2, his peers and co-workers, and his community in Sacramento. We could not be more thrilled to witness the success of EuroSunday Sacramento’s endeavors and look forward to seeing their impact grow.