Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
Welcome Home is a Willing Warriors and the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run project. The program highlights activities at the Warrior Retreat and issues impacting all Veterans. For questions or feedback, please email us at podcast@willingwarriors.org.
Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
Horsepower with Heart: When Corvette Enthusiasts Rally for Veterans
When American muscle meets military gratitude, something special happens. The sixth annual Vets for Willing Warriors Corvette Show returns to the breathtaking 37-acre Warrior Retreat at Bull Run on July 19th, creating a unique convergence of automotive passion and veteran support.
Picture this: rows of gleaming Corvettes spanning seven decades of American innovation, from pristine 1953 classics to the brand-new 2025 electric model making its debut. Last year drew around 240 vehicles, and this year promises an even more impressive turnout. While "Vettes" appears in the name, the show welcomes all classic and antique cars—anything with four wheels and a story to tell.
The day unfolds with surprising energy as dedicated owners arrive before dawn, sometimes as early as 6 AM, to secure prime spots. By 10 AM, the grounds open to the public at no charge, with live classic rock from Radio NV setting the perfect soundtrack. The Knights of Columbus fire up their grills, serving hundreds of visitors hamburgers and hot dogs on a donation basis—community spirit in action.
What makes this event truly special is its setting and purpose. In between admiring meticulously restored vehicles, visitors can tour the retreat houses where wounded warriors and their families find respite. You'll meet Chuck Berge, a Corvette judge since 1988 who travels the country evaluating America's sports car, and potentially Wayne Carini from TV's "Chasing Classic Cars," who returns to select his Celebrity Award winner.
The show transforms into a village of automotive communities as approximately eight different Corvette clubs arrive in impressive convoys, some bringing 40+ vehicles. Awards range from the traditional Founders Award and Veterans' Choice to the People's Choice (determined by beads placed on your favorite car and the new Bell Award for the most unique license plate.
Behind the scenes, nearly 100 volunteers orchestrate this celebration with military precision, creating an experience that draws participants from as far as Buffalo, New York. The event introduces many first-time visitors to the mission of Willing Warriors through the universal language of automotive appreciation.
Ready to participate? Register your vehicle at willingwarriors.org before July 1st for the early bird $20 fee. Sponsors at all levels are welcomed and recognized. Mark July 19th on your calendar (rain date August 9th) and join us for what many participants call their favorite show of the year—where horsepower meets heart in support of our nation's heroes.
Good morning. I'm Larry Zilliox, Director of Culinary Services here at the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run, and this week our guests are Chuck Bursch, our board member and ambassador he's also team lead for our Corvette show and our event coordinator, diane Lunsford you remember her from a previous episode. I've asked him to join me today so we can talk about the upcoming Corvette show Vettes for Willing Warriors. We're very excited about this. This is, I think, our 14th annual show.
Chuck Berge:It's the sixth annual.
Larry Zilliox:Sixth, okay, sixth, let's get right into it. Chuck, welcome, thank you. Diane, welcome, thank you. And so this is something that we have every year, it's something we look forward to, because you guys do all the work and I really don't have to do anything except show up, which is my kind of event really. Sixth annual yes, who would have thought it's crazy? The only thing we've done more than this is the gala actually. The.
Chuck Berge:Warrior Ride.
Larry Zilliox:Warrior Ride. We've done seven.
Chuck Berge:We're coming into the eighth annual Warrior Ride this year.
Larry Zilliox:Okay, but first things first. This is going to be July 19th no rain.
Diane Lunsford:No, rain no forecast.
Larry Zilliox:No forecast for rain. Rain is the enemy of car shows. These are folks that even just the slightest hint of rain, they don't like to roll them out of the barn, because they are precious and they look like it. It's great. So, chuck, tell us a little bit about the show and what's going to happen on July 19th.
Diane Lunsford:Okay, on July 19th we'll start off with a show Vets for Willing Warriors. And just because we say vets doesn't mean it's exclusive to vets. It's open to classic cars, antique cars as well. As long as it's got four wheels, we welcome it. And there's a registration fee yes, online. Online till July 1st, it's $20. The until July 1st, it's $20. The day of the show it's $25. Wow.
Larry Zilliox:Okay, so it's not really breaking the bank for. Corvette owners. Okay, and I have to be honest with you, in previous shows I've seen some cars that I wasn't really sure what they were going. I thought it was just maybe somebody attending the event and got parked wrong because they just didn't look classic and they just didn't seem to be anything special about them. But are there sometimes cars that people are working on and they just want to show what they're doing?
Diane Lunsford:Like a driving project, if you will. Yeah, there's some cars like that. There's some new cars. This year we're going to have actually an EVET, which is electric Corvette. Wow, and that's a 2025.
Larry Zilliox:Wow. And so you say this is the. Is this the first year for Corvette to make an electric car?
Diane Lunsford:Yes, yes, it is.
Larry Zilliox:All right, so we'll have older Corvettes, which I love 1953 and up. Oh, wow, okay, and all the way to 2025. Is that one available for sale yet? Yes, correct, really Okay, all right.
Diane Lunsford:Are you getting one? No, okay.
Larry Zilliox:Diane, are you getting one? Okay, Diane, are you getting one? No, okay. Well, I mean, every year it's a fantastic show. How many cars did we have last year? Roughly Around 240. Wow, okay, diane. This is one of the events where we need the community, where we need our volunteers to step up. What does it take to as the event coordinator, what does it take to put on something like this?
Chuck Berge:It takes many hands and a lot of camaraderie and team spirit. We are blessed to have Faith Lillema who is our volunteer coordinator. She and I work very closely on making sure that no stone is left unturned. We have every potential need fulfilled before we even stage the event in preparation for the day of. So she, Chuck and I are kind of like that whole trio that orchestrate and hopefully each year launch a successful event. It's been great in years past. She's dialed in already this year. We just try to make it an experience that people will remember and, more importantly, understand why we continue to do what we do in terms of supporting our wounded warriors.
Larry Zilliox:So how many volunteers do you think it takes Close to 100?.
Chuck Berge:I was going to say last year in faith, don't quote me on this when you listen to this but I want to say we had roughly about 85 volunteers on the ground and what that entails is everyone's dialed in like a fine-tuned machine to do pre-staging a couple of days before the event, so that when go time or daytime or the day of the event happens, everybody knows their assignments. Everybody's here rolling up their sleeves, getting everything ready to open to the public, which we opened to the public at 10 am on the 19th.
Larry Zilliox:And that's the public. But the corvettes show up very early. I noticed in previous years I thought I was coming early and and I would drive up and there'd be a field full of cars at 7 30. I mean, it's just crazy um chuck. Why, why do these? Why do they show?
Diane Lunsford:up so early they think they can get a primo spot. Oh, you know, okay, the early bird gets the worm. We open up registration at 7.30. I'm here usually about quarter to six and there's usually greeted by two or three cars a little after six. So it's like okay, good morning, how are you, my goodness? And it is open to the public. No charge for the public, right?
Larry Zilliox:And our dear, dear friends at the Knights of Columbus provide food for everybody at just no cost. It's just donate what you can, and I mean they're feeding, you know, easily 400 people hot dogs and hamburgers. I'm going to be honest with you, it's not, it's not roast duck, but hot dogs, hamburgers, just that's a. It's a massive undertaking and God bless them for it, because I know in the early days we did it ourselves and it was. It was a struggle, but they bring a whole team, they do it year after year. They got it down. It's like science. They get the grills over there, they're working two grills, we get a jump on it and we're cooking pretty early and ready to feed everybody starting at 11. And everybody has a good time. We always have entertainment. So tell us a little bit about who's going to be playing.
Chuck Berge:Well, they've actually become, I would say, part of the extended Willie Moyers family Radio Envy, which is Revelry Productions. Brian and the crew play classic music. They can play pretty much anything that is going to trigger that old familiar, bring you back to the moment, the first time you heard the song. They're very supportive of the retreat.
Larry Zilliox:So that's classic rock, not classic music in the sense it's not orchestra.
Chuck Berge:No, there won't be any violins or harps.
Larry Zilliox:Okay.
Chuck Berge:It's classic rock and they're just fun. They have a way of just really engaging the community and it gets people happy and up and dancing or singing along or what have you. So they have committed to come back again this year. We're grateful to have them.
Larry Zilliox:Nice.
Chuck Berge:In addition to, as you said, the lunch service does open up at 11, and please pay attention to the events page on Willing Warriors, because there is going to be a timeline that will be published here shortly that has a few minor adjustments to it. Our goal is to make sure that everybody experiences the whole event, so we've kind of tightened up the schedule a little bit to make sure that everybody gets to enjoy the entire event without leaving you know shortly after the awards or what have you.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, they are phenomenal, they're great, they're a lot of fun. They're great and you know they're pretty laid back guys. There's three of them. They make amazing music and they've been doing this for at least four years, I think.
Chuck Berge:Yes.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, so we're always happy to have them come back and help us out and entertain, and I believe they're going to go from 10 till noon with the music.
Chuck Berge:Yes, They'll start their music at 10 am and they'll be done playing at noon, which again we're grateful for that. That's actually the heart of the event, with a lot of the community here, so again, it's another enhancement to make the event memorable.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah and Chuck, we're going to have all these cars. Do we expect at least what we had last year, or maybe more, hopefully more.
Diane Lunsford:Yeah, yeah. And if you're concerned about weather, we bring a weather forecaster with us who has a Corvette. Chuck Bell from Channel 4 will be here. He advises us impending storms or anything like that.
Larry Zilliox:So we have our own weather department that helps forecast everything and listen. Come out and meet Chuck. He's just a wonderful guy we do pray for no rain. Yes, no, no rain, no rain, not even a thread of rain.
Chuck Berge:Can I ask something to that? In heaven forbid, if the skies are cloudy and stormy, we will not say the morning of oh, we're canceling because of the rain. We will do a very strategic watch with Chuck of the weather and if it turns out that we do have to call it because these car enthusiasts don't want to have their beautiful vehicles out in that type of weather, they won't come.
Larry Zilliox:They just won't come Right.
Chuck Berge:We do have a rain date scheduled, which is August 9th.
Larry Zilliox:Okay.
Chuck Berge:But we're not even going to go there because the event will go full sunshine on the 19th of July.
Diane Lunsford:Yeah, yeah, if you have a car that has to be trailered, we do have trailer parking for those people that do not want to drive their cars.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, well, I've never thought of trailering my truck in, but it's good to know we have that park. Trailers are basically for horses anyway. Yeah, that's true. Well, I think we do. I mean, surprisingly, we do have. I've seen up to seven trailers here. Yeah, I was going to say six. Yeah.
Diane Lunsford:Six or seven trailers, and usually a couple of trailers park down at my house and they drive their cars up.
Larry Zilliox:Wow, wow so what's the story there? Is it just the value of the vehicle? They're just afraid that somebody's going to run into them out on the road.
Diane Lunsford:That or get dirty or a bug chip or whatever. Oh my goodness, it's a trophy that sits in the garage to look at and enjoy Wow.
Larry Zilliox:Okay, goodness, okay, it's a trophy that sits in the garage to look at and enjoy, wow, okay wow, well, yeah, that's okay, well, bring them. Yeah, exactly, we got. We got room for trailers. We got you covered. Yeah for sure. Just uh, reach out to us ahead of time. If you're going to trailer your, your corvette, in, we need to know about that so we can assign parking or maybe get somebody over.
Diane Lunsford:You know, we can work something out with the, the scouts, and if if you have a concern, if we have a weather impending issue, watch Facebook or other media. We will post that the night before. So you've got plenty of time.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, and we're limiting it to 600 cars this year. So sign up right away, don't wait. Um, just go to the web page. It's willingwarriorsorg and you'll see events, a drop down box. Hit on that and then you will see the corvette show and just you know, click on that and it will take you to a registration page and you just register and you pay your registration fee and you're good to go. And a registration fee is per car, per car.
Diane Lunsford:Yes, all right.
Larry Zilliox:So if you want to get you know nine, ten of your relatives into that car, just jam them in and they're all welcome to come.
Diane Lunsford:The page isn't limited to just registrations. If you feel generous and would like to make a donation, we do accept donations on that page.
Larry Zilliox:Yes, and that brings us to sponsorship, correct. So we need sponsors for this event and talk a little bit about what sponsorship is, what it does, diane.
Chuck Berge:There's several different levels of sponsorship, ranging from the presenting sponsor down to the minimal of sponsoring a warrior and many in between. One of the things that we're very blessed with with the sponsors is we have a lot of people who support us and return year over year. One of the things that's exciting is with Chuck being those boots on the ground. If you will out to several different areas throughout the country, he's constantly meeting and greeting with new people who certainly have that veterans connection or that interest and support for veterans. So we continue to expand that. The American Legion is very supportive. We have Effie's, which is an ice cream, local ice cream vendor. They have been with us since the beginning. We have Burke and Herbert Bank, which a lot of these people reach out to us and say we would like to sponsor.
Chuck Berge:How do we do that? And without going ad nauseum to every single benefit per sponsorship, I would direct people to go to willingwarriorsorg do the drop-down menu. The first event you're going to see is the Vets for Willing Warriors. If you click on that there is a red button that says sponsorship. Click on that and it has extremely detailed information on all the different levels of sponsorship, that participation and support because once you become a sponsor for the Vets for Willing Warriors or you get that connection started with the Warriors, it's not a matter of thank you so much, we'll see you at the same time next year. It's you've become part of the journey going forward and there's many ways that you can continue to support. But this is a very patriotic day and it's a very memorable day, so I'm very proud to be a part of it.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, well, it's fun. So think about sponsoring your business, your organization. Take a look at that sponsorship page and, you know, donate what you can. Pick a level that you know is good for you. If $100,000 is good, that's great. Pick that level and that'll work out real well. You'll be, I think, a presenting sponsor if you come in with $100,000.
Chuck Berge:$100,000 will absolutely get them presenting sponsor.
Larry Zilliox:Okay, all right, so that's our target, that's our goal, right? As Diane mentioned, chuck is out traveling. He's not wandering aimlessly around the country, he's actually going to Corvette shows because Chuck is a Corvette judge, which can you tell us what that means?
Diane Lunsford:Basically. We're judging the quality of the Corvettes Basically on originality. It would be as it left the factory. But we also have modified sections of that, determined by the ingenuity of the builder of the car and so on and so forth. But yeah, that's interesting. I've been doing that since 1988. How?
Larry Zilliox:does one get to be a Corvette judge? Did you volunteer, did you go to school, or is there an association that you've had?
Diane Lunsford:I volunteered by observing the judging and the judges what they're looking at, quizzing that. And that's how it all started, with a living, the dream of Corvettes and cars.
Larry Zilliox:Wow, and so different shows around the country invite you to be a judge. Correct, is that how it works? Correct, that's great. Well, we're so happy that you're here as our judge. And when it comes to judging, there are a number of different types of judging going on. So we have, like, the Founders Award award. We have a veteran who, who judges their favorite, correct their standards. Let me tell you, aren't like a Corvette judge standards, it's like whoo, that looks pretty. I like that one exactly. And then what are the other?
Diane Lunsford:level. We have a people's choice which is determined by beads. We sell beads, string of beads, and you put that string of beads on your. What are the other levels? We have a people's choice which is determined by beads. We sell beads, a string of beads, and you put that string of beads on your favorite Corvette. That's people's choice. This year we're going to have a new award called the Bell Award. What that is for the most unique license tag on your car. So if you trailer it, you don't have any tags, you're out. You get that, you're not getting that award. That's the Bell Award. That's a new one. We also have a Celebrity Award and for that we have a gentleman by the name of Wayne Carini coming. Wayne lives in Massachusetts. He has a TV show Chasing Classic Cars. He's been with us before, he's coming again and that'll be his favorite car.
Larry Zilliox:Wow Well let me tell you, if he picks your car, you got a good car Because I mean, I've seen his show and he's he's usually around really nice cars and these corvettes uh, you just gotta come out here and see them. I drive a truck. It has roll-up windows. I I couldn't even imagine driving a corvette, but they are really pretty to look at and we have so many. You can spend an hour easily an hour to two hours just looking at all the cars and a lot of them have really great stories. So I've seen Corvettes come where it was dedicated to somebody who was a veteran who's no longer with us. There's stories about families and building the cars together with their dad or their grandfather, and these guys and gals love to talk about their cars and you can spend a tremendous amount of time meeting with everybody and such nice people. Corvette owners are really nice people and they're here because they really like this show and I just encourage everybody to come out and it's going to be July 19th, 10 o'clock, open to the public and while you're here you can tour the houses, enjoy a meal. We're going to have a number of veteran service organizations here as sort of resources for those veterans that are coming, who are here for the show. But you know there will be organizations that provide assistance on varying levels veteran service organizations. So it's going to be a great time for everybody, diane. So it's going to be a great time for for everybody, diane.
Larry Zilliox:What? What do you think about the brand awareness that we get out of this show? I mean, we don't we don't make much money on this show. This is not about let's have a huge fundraiser, but it's more about getting the word out and having something here that attracts people so that they can see the retreat. And if you've never been here before, it's a real treat, not only to see these cars but to come to the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run. So what do you think? How do you think that kind of works for us as an organization?
Chuck Berge:I think it's abundantly important when we host an event, that we have the opportunity to do that on the actual grounds of the Warrior Retreat, and the level of awareness that is gained due to that is an opportunity for us as an organization to get that message beyond the hallowed grounds of the Warrior Retreat out into the community and beyond.
Chuck Berge:And what I mean by that is to take that and couple it with an event that is pure Americana there's nothing more Americana than Corvettes and Patriots and to have that with the backdrop of 37 beautiful acres with two residences for overnight guest days of Wounded Warriors, a third residence that is going to be hosting amazing programs as time goes on for warriors. It's just very impactful, especially for people. We just came off of our 10th anniversary celebration. I met people that day who had never been here before and the resounding sentiment from them was I had no idea, tell me more about what you do. And that's heartwarming for all of us as staff members, because we're stewards, we're here to protect and communicate and show the world. We're here, and this is our why we're here because of the wounded Warriors that we serve.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, yeah, and I know from talking to owners car owners that I would say in any given year, 30% of them have never been here before. And one of the things that gets them to come which is really great is they're part of a club and the club is bringing people and maybe they just join the club and then they find out about this show. The other thing that gets them to come is I know Diane is like me I keep a flyer in the truck and I chase down people who own Corvettes and I'm accosting them in the Target parking lot.
Chuck Berge:I do that often.
Larry Zilliox:Hey, have you ever put that car in a show? For 20 bucks you can enter a show, you know. And what's really fun too is I will go like at the gas station, I'll be looking for them at the gas station and I'll go up to them and they say, oh yeah, I was at last year or the year before I was there, you know. So hopefully we'll get you know a lot more and new people too, because it's so valuable to um to have them come for the first time and tour the houses. Uh, it's also July, so one of the ways that we entice people to tour the houses is to remind them houses are air conditioned, so that usually brings them in too. And then they're like oh wow, this is pretty nice. Chuck, talk just for a minute about the clubs and how important they are to the day.
Diane Lunsford:Well, the clubs we usually have I'm going to guess about eight different Corvette clubs in the area. One Corvette club in particular usually has about 40 participants, so they all come in together as a group because they want to park alongside them. If they come in sporadically, they're going to be away from their club members, so they all come in as a group. I'll get a call. We're going to leave Walmart parking lot at 7 am, so I'll be there and they'll come in. And what's nice and safe about it? We do have a police officer at the turn coming in and we have excellent parking attendance and your cars are going to be parked distant away from each other, so your door is the one next to it and vice versa. But the clubs are very important. This and they have. They have other events. I like like to think their favorite event is vets for willing warriors, which I think most of them are. Yeah, but come, come out, see the club. You'll see some banners uh, picking in the club what the name is, whether it's a quiet corvette or whatever yeah and they'll group together and usually if you want to join them, they usually have applications yeah, you
Larry Zilliox:can join the club and I know we've had some from maryland come in yeah, we've got.
Diane Lunsford:We've had two cars to come in from buffalo new york.
Larry Zilliox:Wow yeah, wow. So, uh, they come from uh, far and wide. And because this is a great show and it's a great cause. It's not like you're going to be at a McDonald's parking lot with your hood up. This is a real show with real judges, real celebrities. Chuck will be here. You can meet him. He's a celebrity, he's a Corvette judge, he's a board member, and so you really want to come and you know, Wayne Carini's got a TV show and that's nice. But you get a chance to meet Chuck, who's an actual Corvette judge, and he will talk to you about Corvettes because he knows about Corvettes and all the different things on them and all the cool stuff that they have. Clubs are really great and it's really something to see them come en masse and just a line of Corvettes down the road waiting to get in. It's quite because we have this hill that they come down over to get into the driveway and it's quite a sight and we have some great pictures of that. Well, listen, it's quite a sight and we have some great pictures of that. Well, listen, it's July 19th.
Larry Zilliox:Uh, registration is open. Now Go to the webpage willingwarriorsorg. Click on events. You'll see vets for willing warriors. Click on that register, pay your registration fee. It's $20 right now. If you wait to the last minute it's going to go up five bucks. So save that $5, register now and then on July 19th in the morning, we'll see you come and enjoy the music, enjoy the food, enjoy everything. Take tours of the house, meet Chuck, meet Diane she will be here. She's the event coordinator. You'll see her running around crazy and it'll be fun for everybody. I guarantee it. Listen, thank you guys for joining me. Thank you, it's been our pleasure.
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, it's just it's a great, great event and I'm I'm just really happy that you know this is the 26th year for this and I'm sorry wait a minute, sixth year I just got old, real quick.
Chuck Berge:I think it feels like the 26th year sometimes, right, Chuck?
Larry Zilliox:Yeah, yeah. Well, we've done it for a while and we've got it down and it will be fun, I guarantee you. So, again, july 19th, register online willingwarriorsorg. Click events. Click vets for Willing Warriors. Register sponsor and we will see you on July 19th. So, for our listeners, we'll have another episode next Monday morning at 0500. You can find us on all the major podcast platforms. We're also on YouTube and Wreaths Across America. So thanks for listening.
