SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 Car lovers, both young and old, couldn’t have asked for a more perfect night to stroll around the Marketplace at Steamtown Parking Garage to enjoy the 10th annual Cody’s Car Show in memory of Cody Wood, who died by suicide in January 2016 at the age of 21.<\/p>\n
The event, organized by the LRJ Foundation, is an organization committed to growing the conversation about Mental Health Awareness and Suicide Prevention named after Louie Ruspi Jr., who also died by suicide in 2011 at the age of 26.<\/p>\n
His sisters, Teressa and Karla, are the Executive and Deputy Directors of the foundation, committed to educating others about Mental Health and well-being in Pennsylvania and across the East Coast.<\/p>\n
“The LRJ Foundation is a nonprofit organization that provides Mental Health and wellness education programs in schools, across the region, across Pennsylvania and across three states,” Teressa Ruspi said.<\/p>\n
The idea originated when Cody’s mom, Nori, approached the LRJ Foundation about joining forces and doing something to help others and end the stigma surrounding Mental Health in Northeastern PA<\/p>\n
“Cody loved cars and we said what better way to bring awareness to the community by having a car show,” Karla Ruspi said.<\/p>\n
Over the past ten years, the event has grown to be more than just cars, with motorcycles, trucks, food vendors, and a DJ all coming together to keep the energy going while spreading awareness.<\/p>\n
With hundreds of cars and folks getting an up-close look at these vehicles, the Ruspis have seen firsthand how much the community has come together over the past ten years of the car show<\/p>\n
“The car show has brought together a community of those that are not alone; they feel more connected and have more resources for mental health and wellness and everyone feels like they have a connection and have someone to go to,” T. Ruspi said.<\/p>\n
To learn more about Cody’s Car Show and the LRJ Foundation, you can go to LRJfoundation.com for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 Car lovers, both young and old, couldn’t have asked for a more perfect…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-252246","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252246","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}