Each year guests from all over the country don tuxedos and evening gowns to attend the world famous Chicago Auto Show’s inspiring First Look for Charity event. We are honored to be one of the charities benefitting from this event but we would not be a participant without the commitment and leadership of John Hennessy and his family.

John, a local Ford Dealership owner who is a type 1 diabetic himself, has leveraged his role as a director with the Ford Dealer Advertising fund and Ford’s Operation Goodwill to motivate Ford dealerships from around the Chicagoland area to support JDRF. He along with many others in the Ford family attend events such as the Type One Nation to help educate children and adults about type one diabetes (T1D). John has also been instrumental in promoting the Ford Family Team Sponsorship program, a program which matches a Family Walk Team to a Ford Dealership for sponsorship and support. When John was appointed to the board of the Chicago Automobile Trade Association, he immediately sought to have JDRF be his charity of choice at the First Look for Charity event each year. JDRF receives $199 of each $250 ticket purchased on JDRF’s behalf.

While John has been the one to take up the mantle in supporting our mission, it was his parents, Joe and Stella Hennessy, who were the real inspiration for him. “My parents truly believed that every dollar they helped raise would bring me closer to being diabetes free,” John said. “Anywhere personally or through my business I can help JDRF, I will,” he continued.

“I know someday, through the help of JDRF and all the people that have donated over the years, all of us suffering with diabetes will be pump free and diabetes free.”

If you would like to support the Hennessy family’s mission by purchasing tickets to the First Look for Charity event, visit the First Look for Charity website and be sure to designate JDRF as your charity of choice.