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Valentino Rossi Helmet
Auction
November 20, 2007 - Dainese will be auctioning off on eBay the
AGV
helmet worn by Valentino Rossi for the benefit of the
non-profit “Un sogno per il Gaslini Onlus” association
(“A dream for Gaslini Children’s Hospital”).
And get this: the Doctor himself will present the helmet
to the generous bidder in person!
Dainese had great success in the past auctioning some of
Rossi's unique personal racing gear for charity, so they
decided to continue the tradition.
After his racing suit, boots, and gloves auctioned off
in 2005 and 2006, the helmet produced by AGV – a historic brand that returned to Italy after
purchase by Dainese last August – was destined
to follow.
The helmet was used by Rossi during the Grand Prix race in
Mugello in June 2007.
Designed by Aldo Drudi, only three examples were ever
made of this helmet, which is
distinguished by a big red heart at the center of the
shell.
The idea is that the heart will complement the big heart of the
motorcycle racing fan who places the highest bid at the
auction scheduled to begin at 12.00 PM on
Thursday, November 22 and end at the same time on
Tuesday, November 27.
Bidding will start at
1 Euro and can be accessed from the home page of the
Dainese website by anyone
who wants to make an offer of their own.
Generous fans will have five days to win a truly unique
airbrushed helmet autographed by
Valentino Rossi himself, who will deliver the helmet to
the winner in person in the first days of
December.
Proceeds from the on-line auction will be entirely
devolved to the non-profit “Un sogno per il Gaslini
Onlus” association for the completion of an
accommodation structure to serve the over 50,000
children admitted to Genoa’s Giannina Gaslini Hospital,
Italy’s largest children’s hospital.
In particular, a center with areas dedicated to play,
distance learning, physical rehabilitation, and
meetings with family members will be created inside San
Gerolamo Abbey next door to the
hospital.
For the past three years, Dainese has been promoting
solidarity and research projects that give
motorcycle racing fans the chance to make great gestures
of generosity of their own.
The 35 thousand Euros raised by the auction of Valentino
Rossi’s racing suit (won by an English
collector) the first year helped fund a motorcycle rider
research project developed together with
Padova University’s Mechanical Engineering Department.
The over 70 thousand Euros raised from the auction of
the Doctor’s racing suit, boots, and gloves
in 2006 were also dedicated to the “Un sogno per il
Gaslini” Project.
"Providing people with head-to-toe protection for
dynamic sports” was the mission with which Dainese was
originally founded back in 1972 by its current CEO, Lino
Dainese - a mission that the company continues to
pursue today in every new application to make Dainese a
dynamic protagonist in constant motion itself.”
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