How a Yellow Lamborghini started bringing smiles to Huntsville’s Cancer patients
Southern Motoring Society made a stop this weekend that hit a little different than our usual road trips and cruise-ins. We headed to Huntsville, Alabama, to the Rally for Kam, the annual charity supercar rally hosted by Smile Awhile Inc. and it’s the kind of event that reminds you why car culture, at its best, is about people first and cars second.
A Rally Built on One Man’s Promise
Smile Awhile Inc. was founded by Brian Land, a Huntsville-area cancer survivor who was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia back in 2010. While going through chemotherapy, Brian heard about a young boy with cancer who got the ride of his life in a supercar, thanks to his community rallying around him. Brian made a promise to himself, if he ever got the chance to own a car like that, he’d use it to do the same for others.
In 2021, he made good on that promise, buying a 2017 Lamborghini Aventador SV bright yellow and impossible to miss, and Smile Awhile Inc. was born. The organization’s whole mission is to give cancer patients and survivors a few minutes to forget what they’re going through, one supercar ride at a time.
This year’s Rally for Kam took place Saturday, August 22nd, starting with a police escorted supercar procession running from Clearview Cancer Institute in Huntsville to Guntersville, Alabama, and returning to Huntsville ending with a full car show at Wicks Family Field at Joe Davis Stadium.
We caught the tail end of that journey the car show at Wicks Family Field, where the rally cars roll in after escorting patients and survivors. By the time they arrive, there’s already a crowd waiting, and the field fills in fast with everything from modern exotics to classic muscle, all parked up for the community to walk through.
The rally cars were already lined up in neat rows, they included just about every super car manufacturers, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Porsche, Mercedes and more Lamborghinis than I have seen in one place. Every car was drawing its own group of onlookers snapping photos and looking through open windows at the interiors. Families wandered the rows with kids in tow, some posing their children next to their favorite cars, while longtime enthusiasts traded notes on horsepower and build details with total strangers. The energy was relaxed but electric, the kind of crowd that shows up not just for the cars, but for what the day represented.
What we didn’t get to see firsthand was the rally itself, the ride-alongs with patients and survivors, the police escort rolling through Huntsville, the send-off at Clearview. That part of the day is really the heart of what Smile Awhile does, and it’s worth checking out their Facebook page for photos and recaps from people who were there for it.
It’s easy to think of car culture as shows, race tracks, and Saturday morning Cars & Coffee. Events like the Rally for Kam are a reminder that the same passion for cars can be turned into something that genuinely changes someone’s day and sometimes their whole outlook. For a cancer patient in the middle of treatment, a few minutes of pure adrenaline in a Lamborghini is a much needed distraction from what they’re going through.
Smile Awhile Inc. also runs a smaller, ongoing ride program out of Clearview’s Crestwood location and partners with local law enforcement for a holiday giving initiative so this isn’t a once-a-year effort. It’s a year-round mission with one big weekend as its centerpiece.
From a personal standpoint this hits close to home because my parents are cancer survivors, both treated at Clear View Cancer Center. They call my Dad “The Miracle Patient” because thanks to the Dr’s and staff at CCI he’s over 20 years in remission, and my Mom a is over 10 years in remission.
If this story moved you the way it moved us, there are a few ways to Follow and Support:
Facebook page can be found here Smile Awhile
Want to donate or own an exotic car and want to help next year? Smile Awhile is always looking to expand the program reach out through their site below.
Smileawhileinc.org
Southern Motoring Society will be keeping an eye on Smile Awhile Inc.’s future events this is exactly the kind of local car culture and event that means so much more than the cars attending.
Gallary of other cars attending
