Betsy Slauson and her son, Dennis Slauson
Betsy Slauson has considerately donated her family’s 2003 Corvette to the National Corvette Museum in partnership with the Traffic Safety Education Foundation (TSEF) Driver’s Training Program in memory of her late husband, Donald Slauson. The Slauson family had been in Bowling Green, KY back in 2002 for the introduction of the 50th Anniversary Corvette. As they were headed home from that trip, Betsy’s husband said, “Let’s buy a new one.” She agreed, which led them to purchase the 2003 Corvette Convertible that Betsy has now donated. The Museum’s Director of Collections/Curator, Derek Moore, shared that “any nonprofit cannot survive without grants or donations. To have vehicles like this donated to both the Museum and this program are what make this entire institution run the way it does.”
Not long after the Slauson’s got their new 2003 Corvette, Disney did a feature of “50 Years of Corvettes” in Downtown Disney. Donald was on the committee for this event and worked with Disney to get the Corvettes for the feature. The Slauson’s new 2003 Corvette was on display front and center. Betsy shared that the show was a “top-notch” experience. At the show, there was signage for each Corvette that had the owner’s name, a description, the year of the car, the price of gas that year, and even the base price of the car. There they met the editor of Vette Magazine who asked them if they wanted their 2003 50th Anniversary Corvette to be on the cover. They said yes and their son, Dennis Slauson, had the opportunity to take the car to the photo shoot.
Dennis was once asked by his father if he would like to drive the ’03 around the speedway in Fontana, California with a NASCAR driver. Dennis said yes but “had no idea who was going to hop in the car” and it ended up being John Andretti. This was a parade lap for the NASCAR drivers and each vehicle carrying the drivers was a Corvette Convertible. Dennis said that was “a pretty cool moment” in their 2003 Corvette.
Betsy, a member of the Museum who receives America’s Sports Car Magazine, saw an article that the Museum and Traffic Safety Education Foundation were looking for C5 and C6 Corvettes. She thought the idea of donating the car was something her late husband would like. When she posed the idea to her son, he said “I think that would make dad smile.” Dennis shared that maybe their donation would “plant the Corvette bug” in a child that was also planted in his father long ago.
