It takes a village to raise a child, or in this case, an entire community—with cars as the magnet that brought everyone together.

This is how a stay-at-home mom, Nadine Cua, describes her experience raising a child and making his ninth birthday party extra special.

Things can get overwhelming thanks to the easy access and exchange of information. And Angelo, Nadine’s son nicknamed Tami, grew to appreciate and love cars.

Tami had always been a car and motorcycle enthusiast since he was three years old, after watching numerous automotive and motorcycle videos on social media as soon as he could sit up and pay attention to the screen.

Tami first started imitating the sounds when the parents realized he was slowly becoming a dyed-in-the-wool enthusiast at a very young age. His dad, who is also named Angelo, is an avid motorcycle rider himself, so the fascination with speed must be in the genes.

Nadine tried to dissuade Tami at first, offering a variety of other options, but the birthday boy had set his mind and wouldn’t budge.

Nadine was becoming desperate and started posting on car content-centered Facebook page groups, randomly asking sports car owners and people in the car community for help to make Tami’s birthday wish come true.

Many instead recommended that Nadine and Angelo bring Tami to known car-spotting venues like BGC, but Nadine felt it was too basic for her son. Tami wanted to be up close and personal with the cars.

Thankfully, automotive car enthusiast and all-around good guy Tom Badillo saw Nadine’s plea on social media and replied. Tom then proceeded to round up some sports car-owning friends to help grant Tami’s birthday wish.

Prior to this, Tom and Nadine had never met each other. But a mother’s earnest plea to give the best she could for her child was overpowering and overwhelming, so Tom was compelled to help make the wish happen.

Tom then posted on social media with an invitation for sports car owners to bring their rides to Tami’s birthday party. Tom also created a chat group to facilitate communication between Nadine, Tom, and the rest of the participants.

Suddenly—from unsure if a car meet would ever happen for Tami—Nadine’s worry shifted to having enough food and drinks to welcome strangers bringing their sports cars to the party.

The appointed day came, and much to Nadine’s surprise and gratitude, people driving sports cars actually came, their noise getting Tami excited. He rushed outside to see who made it to his party.

Paolo and Jennifer Balagtas arrived in their R35 GT-R and A90 Supra; Chris Sales came in his Chevrolet Camaro; drifter Gio Rodriguez showed up with his Nissan A31 Cefiro drift car; and a few other people who apparently had seen Nadine’s post also appeared.

Other notable sports-car guests were a Porsche 911, a Ferrari 488, a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution V, a Nissan Silvia S14, a Mazda MX-5 (ND), and a couple of Ducati big bikes.

It definitely made birthday boy Tami elated seeing some of his favorite sports cars.

Nadine and husband Angelo were overjoyed with the outpouring of support from strangers in the local car community, and extremely happy Tami got his wish. Tami himself said that it was his best and most memorable birthday party yet.

Core memories indeed, and a sign that our car community is made up of kind and generous souls.