Celebrating Five Years of Fueling the Future

A Celebration Built on Community

As the sun dipped below the Hudson River and the lights of the New Jersey shoreline began to shimmer across the water, Piston Foundation founder Robert Minnick stood before a room of longtime friends and supporters and reminded everyone of a simple truth: Piston was never built by one person.

Over the next several minutes, he thanked the volunteers, donors, advisors, and early believers who helped transform an idea first imagined in 2018 into a national nonprofit with a growing impact on the collector car community. It was a fitting moment for the Piston Foundation 5th Anniversary Celebration—and a powerful reminder that meaningful progress is built by people united around a common purpose.

An Extraordinary Evening

Hosted by Chris Gleason, the celebration brought together many of the people who have stood behind Piston from the beginning. Alongside his husband, Graham Berwind, Chris welcomed guests throughout the evening and graciously led tours for those eager to experience the remarkable vessel that served as the venue.

For a room full of automotive enthusiasts, the yacht itself became part of the evening’s appeal. Beyond its elegant design and craftsmanship, guests admired the engineering that powered it—from its massive diesel engines to the sophisticated systems required to operate it. Like a great collector car, it inspired appreciation not just for how it looked, but for the ingenuity and skill behind its creation.

Chris’s generosity extended well beyond hosting the celebration. Since becoming involved with Piston, he has volunteered his time, organized events, supported the Foundation’s mission, and even donated his Toyota GR Corolla to benefit scholarships. The anniversary celebration itself was his vision: an opportunity to bring together the community that has helped Piston grow and celebrate what that community has accomplished together.

Five Years of Momentum

From its earliest days, Piston has been driven by a simple belief: preserving automotive heritage requires preserving the skills behind it. The organization exists to help young enthusiasts discover rewarding careers as collector car technicians while ensuring that the knowledge required to restore, maintain, and preserve these remarkable machines is passed to the next generation.

Five years in, that vision is becoming reality.

Beginning with its first scholarships in 2022, Piston has grown into a national force for workforce development, awarding dozens of scholarships to aspiring technicians and helping graduates launch careers throughout the collector car world. With its scholarship program gaining momentum, the Foundation is now looking toward its next chapter: creating stronger pathways from education into employment through the development of the Piston Jobs Program.

Looking Ahead

Yet the most memorable conversations of the evening weren’t about milestones or statistics.

Again and again, supporters ended discussions with the same question: “How can I help?”

It reflected something deeper than enthusiasm. Guests recognized that Piston is creating real opportunities for young people while addressing one of the collector car community’s most pressing challenges: ensuring there will be skilled technicians to care for these vehicles in the decades ahead.

People left with a sense of pride in what the Foundation has accomplished over its first five years—and optimism about what comes next. More importantly, they left feeling that they were part of something bigger than themselves: a nationwide effort to strengthen the future of the car community by investing in the next generation.

The first five years were about proving the model.

The next five years will be about expanding its reach, deepening its impact, and building the bridges from education to employment that will help talented young enthusiasts turn their passion into lifelong careers.

If the Piston Foundation 5th Anniversary Celebration demonstrated anything, it was that this mission belongs to an entire community—and that community is just getting started.