A classic car collection, valued at more than $2 million, is about to find a new home in a garage in Michigan.
All 35 cars, owned by Bandit Industries Inc. founder Mike Morey and his wife, Dianne, will be auctioned off next year to help fund scholarships at Northwood University.
After years of treasuring and taking care of the prized collection, Mike decided that it was time to give it away to a cause they both believed in.
Dianne and I have been lucky enough to make a lot of money over the years owning our own business, so I thought this would be the time to do something good for the college next door to us, he told FOX Business.
Northwood University, a private institution in Midland whose mission is to develop free-enterprise leaders, is about 27 miles from Moreys' home.
The school founded in 1959 offers more than 1,000 scholarships a year to help with the financial burden of college education, but none of them are full rides. The school has a total enrollment of 3,277.
MacDonald told FOX Business that they will reinvest those dollars back into Northwood. As a private university, we want to make sure we're affordable for young people to attend. MacDonald received a call about Moreys' donation this summer.
Mike's passion for cars began when he was 16, but he admitted that he could never afford the cars he would later collect.
If you were broke like I always was, you couldn't have the cars I collected, he said.
After starting his construction equipment supplier company in the 1980s, Morey invested in a small workshop where he and six other employees built a wood chipper that they believed would be better than any other model on the market.
The success of the Model 100 Brush Bandit, a 12 inch capacity disc-style chipper, was what helped the Moreys develop Bandit Industries in 1987.
Mike bought his first car, a '57 Chevy convertible, for around $80,000 more than two decades ago, because of the financial success of the company, he said.
The funds from auctioning off the cars next month will be one of the biggest gifts for the university, which means it's going to be one of the most impactful ones for our students, MacDonald said.
All but one of the vehicles will be auctioned off. On campus, a Chevrolet Corvette from 1958 will be displayed in honor of the couple.
He said that Northwood has become the country's premier provider of talent to the automotive and aftermarket industries over the years.
Bandit Industries has a network of more than 180 dealer locations around the world and is entirely owned by the company.
After rejecting offers from private firms, the Moreys announced in 2018 that they would sell their company to their employees as part of an employee stock ownership plan. The company has more than 700 employees at the moment.