‘A Donation of This Scale Is Very Meaningful’: Waveny Park Conservancy Receives $24,000 from Caffeine & Carburetors

A town man’s hugely popular car show is benefitting New Canaan in new ways.

Oct. 20, 2024 Caffeine & Carburetors at Waveny. Photo courtesy of Matt Konspore

Long praised for the visitors it brings to town who then patronize downtown businesses and restaurants, the “Caffeine & Carburetors” antique and specialty car show that Doug Zumbach launched nearly 30 years ago outside his eponymous coffee shop on Pine Street now is raising tens of thousands of dollars for local nonprofit organizations.

On Wednesday, Zumbach—joined by Zumbach Coffee/C&C Director of Business Development Claire Drexler, and fellow C&C organizer Peter Bush—presented a $24,000 check to the Waveny Park Conservancy. 

The funds were raised through the Oct. 20 C&C at Waveny. Zumbach runs two C&C’s per year, one downtown—that saw $16,000 raised for the New Canaan Community Foundation—and the other at the park.

Scenes from the June 17, 2018 Caffeine & Carburetors at Waveny Park. Credit: Michael Dinan

Asked how he feels about the fundraising component of Caffeine & Carburetors, Zumbach said,  “We’re very proud, and we’d like to thank a lot of the residents who contributed and as well as attended the event. We couldn’t have done it without a lot of our neighbors. And we had a lot of people from out of town come in. We’re just very proud of the reputation of the event as being one of the premier events in the tri-state area. And we like our new formula of raising funds for local nonprofit organizations. We’ll continue it into 2025 with our two events, which haven’t been scheduled yet, but they’re planned.”

Scenes from the June 17, 2018 Caffeine & Carburetors at Waveny Park. Credit: Michael Dinan

Steve Boeschenstein, chair of the Conservancy’s board, said the organization is “extremely grateful for the donation,” which will go toward large projects such as woodlands restoration and planning for improvements to the Merritt Parkway trail. 

“Those are some of the largest projects we have, but in addition to that, we increasingly have higher and higher maintenance costs in the park that we split with the town but our share is significant of those, and so it all goes towards supporting all of those things,” Boeschenstein told NewCanaanite.com prior to taking a photo with the C&C representatives in the Waveny House forecourt on a clear, sunny fall day.

Russell Dinan at the May 22, 2016 Caffeine & Carburetors at Waveny. Credit: Michael Dinan

Boeschenstein said the Conservancy is “pleased that we were able to find a way to turn this incredible event for New Canaan and an event that draws a lot of visitors in from outside the community into an opportunity to raise money on behalf of the park.”

“Each year we ideally want to raise up to $500,000,” he said. “So a donation of this scale is very meaningful to us. And we’re very appreciative of Doug and his team working with us on this.”

Drexler said the Waveny C&C in October was different from past events because it had many more nonprofit organizations set up booths to connect with showgoers, eight in all. 

“And they were able to meet members of the community, people from outside the community that came to attend the event,” she said. “We’re just excited to be able to support the community in that way.”