Superhero Award

Winston Churchill said that, and he could have been talking about our Superhero, Patrick Willis.

Patrick's personal story is sort of a rags-to-riches tale. 

In 1972, at the age of 16, this Northern California native began his career as a "repo man" and by age 19 he had purchased that same company from its founder. 

Today, the business he built -- American Recovery Service -- is the largest national automotive repossession servicing company in the world and the leader in its industry. 

But Pat is not only a saavy businessman, he’s a nice guy.

A few years ago, Pat allowed us to borrow the use of the old Mineshaft building on Highway 50 for the presentation of Heartstoppers Haunted House.  

This generosity helped us to raise more than $100,000 over a couple of years, allowing us to offer more and better activities to the community and stabilizing the organization.

While that generosity was magnificent, we were unaware at the time that Mr. Willis’ philanthropy apparently knows no bounds.   

We watched from afar as he made improvements to the Mineshaft property over the past year, fixing siding and adding new lighting in the enormous parking lot and wondered… What’s he up to?

You cannot imagine our shock when on Oct. 5, Mr. Willis notified us of his intention to make a charitable gift of this wonderful old building and the approximately 12 acres on which it sits, to the Cordova Community Council.  

With the stroke of the pen, in a charitable gift valued at more than $8 million, one of the largest charitable donations in the region, Pat Willis has changed the course of our community forever.  

Why do I say that?

 

We are now working on both a short range and long range plan to convert this asset to the benefit of all of us in Rancho Cordova.

In the short run, it is our intention to activate the property in fun and interesting ways to support vibrancy of community life. So stay tuned!

In the long term, we will assure the smooth and favorable transfer of a portion of the property to the City of Rancho Cordova, for the ultimate construction of a new interchange that will connect Highway 50 with the Rancho Cordova Parkway, encouraging development of broad reaches of our city, effectively swinging open the doors to our future. 

All of this, because of Pat Willis.

It will not surprise you to hear that we are not the only beneficiaries of Pat Willis’ generosity. Many worthy efforts have benefitted from his generosity for many years -- he is already considered an official Hero by the Boys and Girls Club of El Dorado County, for example. Believe me, there really is just so much more.

Pat, you are certainly a Superhero to us. We will work hard to amplify your generosity by being generous ourselves. We will honor your faith in us by honoring others -- addressing real needs, and rewarding selfless acts that build a better Rancho Cordova, and a better world.

And just for the fun of it, we will rename Mineshaft Lane to Patrick Willis Lane – a simple tribute to a man who has made a life by what he gives.

Mayor Linda Budge, and everybody, please help us honor our Superhero, Patrick Willis.