Member of the Month
September 2008
George Cantu & Genevieve Mora
(aka THE GEES)
I was in Detroit, Michigan for a family reunion in Feb. 2005. During our sightseeing tour of the city, we stumbled upon the GM Museum. I had always been fascinated with sports cars and when I glanced at a burnt orange sports car from far away, I was immediately drawn to it. I was mesmerized by this car… the burnt orange color, the tan interior, the curved body style. Yep, this was something I could definitely see myself driving, one day, when I hit the lotto J.
I nonchalantly glanced at the stats of the car and was shocked to see it was a Corvette. When I returned to Houston, I decided to see how much this magnificent car would cost. To my dismay, it was way above my league and completely out of the question. So I continued to drive my 1997 3000GT L.
In Nov. 2005, I decided enough was enough! I may not have food on the table or a roof over my head but I was going to buy the Corvette.
At that time, I had been dating my boyfriend George for 5 years before purchasing the vette. We tried to figure out many names for my personalized plates. Then we came up with George + Genevieve = 2 GEES (hence the name).
On one boring Sunday afternoon in April, 2007, we browsed through the internet and saw that COCH was participating in a corvette show in Clear Lake. We decided to go and were amazed to see the various year model Corvettes and how these sports enthusiasts had fixed up their cars. We caught the end of the show as everyone was revving up their engines and heading out. Truly a spectacular sight to see!
Later, we went to a COCH meeting just to see what it was all about. Upon hearing about the various charities, Street Meets, upcoming car shows…we were hooked and decided to join that same day.
Then it hit me…BAM!!!! I got Mod Fever! Since May 2007, we have added many mods to the car including a new Corsa Sport exhaust, lambo doors, various chrome parts, Corvette floor mats, a mural of the Houston skyline, undercarriage neon lights, strobe lights on the wheels & engine, new C6 wheels, etc. After months of pondering over a theme, we agreed on the Astros theme being no one else had a sports theme plus the burnt orange color matched the Astros’ logo perfectly.
Since our first car show in June 2007, the car has won many many awards and trophies including 3rd place at the Autorama. The car has been requested to attend many events including parades, exhibition shows, car shows, TV interviews and has been featured in a couple of Corvette magazines. We were even recognized by COCH as the Rookies of the Year. But out of all the honors given to this Corvette, our most prestigious award would be to have been voted by many children from the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization as the “Coolest Car in the Whole Show” in Kemah.
Corvette Owners Club of Houston is all about working with charities, learning about Corvettes, camaraderie and just having fun. We are proud to be members of this fine organization and we feel COCH has now become our extended family.
Genevieve and Jim Deshaies, Astros broadcaster and former pitcher
