The undeniable centerpiece of Labrum Auto Group in Heber City is a yellow 2025 Chevy Trailblazer wrapped in a wasp-themed design and plastered with the Wasatch High School logo and mascot.
It’s the 16th of its kind. Every year since 2010, Danny Labrum, the owner of the dealership, has donated a car to a student from Wasatch County High School.
And his efforts haven’t gone unrecognized. The Heber Valley Chamber of Commerce in January gave Labrum the Coleman-Kohler Lifetime Achievement Award.
The award was named after two longtime Midway residents who were deeply involved in the community: Grant Kohler, founder of Heber Valley Artisan Cheese, and Clay Coleman, owner of CRC Design and Signarama and longtime volunteer at Swiss Days. The pair were close friends and died within two weeks of each other in 2023.
Labrum is the award’s third recipient. Kristy Bond was recognized for her volunteering on the boards of the Heber Valley Hospital and Wasatch Education Foundation in 2024, and the 2023 award was given to Kohler and Coleman posthumously.
Coleman’s son, Spencer, currently runs the Heber City Signarama and has long been involved in Labrum’s car giveaways. He and his father have wrapped every car they’ve given away. He said Labrum usually calls him for design and wrapping just a few days before he needs the car.
“My dad used to tell me that I did my best design work under pressure,” he joked.
While most parents buy beaters as their kids’ first cars, Labrum goes the extra mile.
“I drove a Camaro off of his lot that had 16 miles on it that we then gave to a high school kid,” Coleman recalled.
Labrum said that, while he used to donate less flashy cars, he upped the quality to generate excitement for the school and reflect positively on himself and his business.
The car is given to a student in an opportunity drawing through Wasatch High School’s Cool 2 Care program. The program was created by Shawn Kelly, director of operations and human resources with Wasatch County School District, in 2010, when he was the principal of Wasatch High School. The program’s purpose was to prevent bullying and transform students into model citizens by rewarding outstanding behavior. There are three pillars to Cool 2 Care: grades, attendance and being involved.
When a student does something admirable, whether it’s picking up trash or sitting with a student who’s feeling down at lunch, a teacher or staff member might give them a Cool 2 Care card. The cards are then used in raffles.
Inspired by a similar program on the Wasatch Front, Keys to Success, Kelly approached Labrum in 2010 with the idea of giving away a car as part of Cool 2 Care. Labrum was completely on board.
Kelly estimated that about 20,000 Cool 2 Care cards are handed out each academic year. In May, 30 are drawn from a bowl during an assembly, and the corresponding students are called onstage to randomly choose from 30 boxes. Each has a key fob in it, but only one activates the car donated by Labrum Auto Group.
Wasatch High School Principal Ryan Bishop said there have been countless stories from the giveaways that “would bring you to tears,” but one in particular sticks out in his mind.
In 2024, high school senior Yahir Gandarilla was planning to attend Weber State University as a first generation college student. But some family circumstances arose that put a wrench in his plans.
Bishop heard from Gandarilla that he woke up on the morning of the car giveaway thinking, “If I win that car today, I’m going to go to school.” Without the car, he wouldn’t have the resources to go.
After a chaotic morning, Gandarilla barely made it to the assembly and was called up to the stage to pick a box.
“He put his hand on one of the boxes to grab a key. And he said he felt something tell him to grab another one. And so he did. And he thought, ‘I’m going to win that car,’” Bishop recalled.
Sure enough, he did. He burst into tears.
Gandarilla is currently studying to be a teacher at Weber State University.
“To say that (the Labrums have) completely changed the trajectory of families in this valley with the program that they’ve created is not overstating,” he added.
The impact was furthered in 2019 when Labrum Auto Group decided to spearhead Cool Teachers Care, a car giveaway for teachers. Each school in the district nominates an exceptional teacher, and the Labrums then decide on whom to give the car. The teacher is given a one-year lease on the vehicle, $1,000 in gas donated by Mountainland One Stop and a year’s insurance paid for by local Allstate Insurance agent Brian Mair.
Labrum is still working out how to adapt the student car giveaway when the new Deer Creek High School opens in August, but “more than likely, it’s eventually going to be two cars,” he said.
Kelly said the Cool 2 Care program would have fizzled out without Labrum’s influence. It turns out that having a local businessman set a high bar with a car donation makes other businesses want to donate something of their own to be given away.
“His generosity changed this valley,” Kelly said. “Everybody else jumped on board because of his leadership.”
He added Labrum’s generosity isn’t a PR move, but a lifestyle. Whether it’s a cake auction for the football team or a livestock auction at the Wasatch County Fair Days for the 4-H youth development program, “He’s there with his hand in the air,” purchasing “thousands and thousands of dollars’ worth of goods and services that he really doesn’t need.”
Bishop said Labrum is one of the best examples he’d ever seen of charitable giving.
“Danny would take the shirt off his back and hand it to you if he thought it would help you out,” he said.
Coleman said that kind-hearted ethos carries into Labrum’s business practice, too — truly defying the stereotype of a scummy car salesman.
“He wants to be able to look at you at the grocery store and know that he was honest with you and gave you a great deal,” he said.
Labrum’s humility was evident as he sat in his office at the dealership, downplaying his role as a pillar of the community.
The office used to be a studio apartment where he lived with his family when he first moved to Heber City 25 years ago. The businessman was raised in Roosevelt, and originally wanted to be a doctor. After failing to get into his dream school in Phoenix, he decided that running a car dealership like his stepdad did before him would be easier than enduring the Medical College Admission Test again.
After working his way up the ladder at his stepdad’s Lincoln Mercury dealership, he moved back to Utah, in part to escape the Arizona heat, and eventually bought the Heber City dealership he owns today.
Labrum gave a simple explanation for his community involvement.
“This community supports me, so let’s support them,” he said. “I don’t like much attention, but I’ll accept a Grant Kohler and Clay Coleman award any day of the week.”
Coleman, who is a board member of the Heber Valley Chamber of Commerce and votes on the reward’s recipient, noted that it would be difficult to find a pillar of the community on the same level as his father, Kohler or Labrum to give the award next year.
“Danny is probably one of the ultimate people that I think could set that bar,” he said. “It’s going to take some serious digging and us hearing about some pretty amazing things for us to start selecting more and more people as this goes on.”