THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 17, 1994 TAG: 9407150213
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Susie Stoughton
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Lynn Owens called the other day, full of enthusiasm about a community service project the Franklin Jaycees are sponsoring.
Chrysler and the Jaycees have teamed up on the national Neon Program, which provides money for the local chapter and publicity for the car company about their sporty-looking vehicle, the Neon, and some feedback on what the public thinks about the new car, a 1995 model.
The local Jaycees chapter - one of 300 in the U.S. to be approved for the program and the only one in southside Virginia - hoped to get at least 50 people to come by for a test drive one afternoon last week. If so, Chrysler would give the chapter $300 to use for its community service projects.
Blake Chrysler-Dodge in Franklin provided three Neons for the afternoon.
Jaycee Owens was ecstatic at the end when they had 50 names on the list.
``People fell in love with this car,'' she said. ``It was very popular.''
Chrysler had people like the Jaycees in mind when the company designed the cute little four-cylinder model that blipped across the television screen throughout the 1994 winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Owens said.
Jaycees are young, energetic and innovative, she said. They're the twenty- to thirtysomething age group that Chrysler thinks would appreciate the low-cost, high-mileage car.
Never mind that I'm old enough to be the mother of a Jaycees' member.
I just hoped these youngsters wouldn't snicker if I parked my roomy, family-ride for a few minutes for a spin around the block.
I never really try to hide my age, if I can remember what it is. But I really didn't mind some years ago when my daughter, now old enough to join the Jaycees, continued for about a decade to tell people I was ``only 29.'' Finally, she looked me straight in the face and said, ``You know, nobody's going to believe me any more'' and started blurting out my real age.
Now, these young, energetic and innovative Jaycees - several of them former classmates of my children - were signing people up for a test drive.
Owens was the first person in Franklin to buy a Neon from Blake Chrysler-Dodge, she said.
Her car, - nicknamed ``Leon, the Neon,'' gets 35 miles a gallon on trips, she said. She needs something with good mileage, she said, because she travels a great deal in her job with the Department of Rehabilitative Services.
She's the individual development vice president of the local Jaycees chapter and the Neon chairperson, probably because she owns one.
Somehow she had persuaded Chrysler to let the Franklin Jaycees participate in the program. Again, perhaps, owning one didn't hurt, and also there's a Chrysler dealership in town.
After going for a short spin around Franklin in either the white, red or strawberry model, drivers filled out an evaluation form.
Julianne Harris, a Virginia Tech sophomore from Mathews County who is a summer intern at Union Camp, drove the strawberry car.
Peppy, she said.
``It's got good pickup in it,'' Harris said.
But she will probably choose a four-wheel drive vehicle when she buys her first car, she said.
Maybe Chrysler will come out next year with a Neon pickup.
Better yet, maybe they will offer a Neon SE - senior edition - for those of us with a little less pep. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by JOHN H. SHEALLY II
After test-driving a Neon, Kim Evans fills out a survey form for
Franklin Jaycees member Lynn Owens.
by CNB