MONTREAL — Although it’s still nine months off, organizers are getting the second Drive for Smiles event into gear to make it even more successful.

The fundraising initiative slated for Sept. 13 is being headed by, among others, Montreal businessman and car aficionado Larry Plotnick, executive chair of The UPS Store Canada, and the Starlight Children’s Foundation, which brings “smiles, laughter and joy” to children with very serious illnesses.

With only four weeks to plan the inaugural event last fall, Drive for Smiles raised $50,000 for local children’s hospitals and programs, and “we’re about to have a brain-storming session for the next event,” Plotnick said in a recent telephone call from Florida.

Starlight and The UPS Stores Canada have been connected for a number of years, with donor bins for Starlight at UPS Stores’ 372 sites across Canada.

But while usual past UPS Stores fundraisers for Starlight involved golf tournaments, last fall “we decided to do something different,” said the high-energy Plotnick, 68, and the younger brother of another well-known Montrealer, community leader Stanley Plotnick.

Larry Plotnick, with partner UPS Store president David Druker and Starlight executive director Brian Bringolf, decided to make exotic cars the focal point.

“I’m a car fanatic,” Plotnick said.

At Angrignon Park, 20 children from Sainte-Justine and Montreal Children’s hospitals got to sit in Ferraris, McLarens and Lamborghinis and be escorted by police round and about for several hours, the kids grinning from ear to ear.

 “It was the thrill of a lifetime,” Bringolf said.

One donor, Derek Stern, even provided a helicopter to give the kids an “in hot pursuit” feeling.

“The most impressive thing for me,” Bringolf told The CJN, “was seeing how these children affected the car owners.

“These were all well-to-do people, used to giving to charities. But being with these children is what affected them the most and made them want to do it again next year.”

After the children left, the procession of major donors in luxury, sports, exotic and classic cars continued on to Chateau Montebello, where they enjoyed a gourmet luncheon, “ran the roads” a bit, and witnessed a high-speed Baja Series racing boat in action before returning home.

For 2014, Bringolf and Plotnick said, the plan is to make Drive for Smiles an all-day event that will include the cars, helicopter and speed boat rides, as well as more kids and families.

“Trust me when I share how fortunate each and every one of us is to have healthy children and family members,” Plotnick said on the driveforsmiles.ca website. “Starlight helps gravely ill children and their families cope with their pain, fear and isolation each and every day, through special events in hospitals across Canada.”

Visit the local Starlight Children’s Foundation at www.starlightquebec.org.