Page 18 - BusinessWest August 31, 2020

Carla Cosenzi
President, TommyCar Auto Group
She’s Driven to Succeed — in Business and in the
Community
arla Cosenzi moved into her new office at Northampton Volkswagen some time ago.
But she’s never quite found the time to fully decorate.
Indeed, there are a number of drawings created by her children that haven’t found their way on to the walls yet, and, likewise, there are several plaques, photos, BusinessWest awards (in the plural), and assorted pieces of memorabilia still waiting to be hung.
Among them is a popular framed poster featur- ing an image of legendary Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi above the words ‘What it takes to be Number One,’ and a quote that has become one of her favorites:
“Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all the time thing. You don’t win once in a while; you don’t do things right once in a while; you do them right all of the time. Winning is a habit.”
The poster once belonged to her father, Tom,
and she more or less inherited it from him — along with a num- ber of other things. She said her father lived by the words in that quote — espe- cially the part about doing things right all the time — and, not surprisingly, she does as well.
She’s inherited
his entrepreneurial
spirit — she and her
brother, Tom Jr., have
greatly expanded the
business, adding sev-
eral dealerships in recent years — as well as his com- mitment to serve the community, especially with
the Tom Cosenzi Driving for the Cure Charity Golf Tournament, staged each year to raise funds to battle brain cancer, which claimed her father when he was just 52 years old. Since it was launched in 2009, the tournament has raised more than $1 million to sup- port brain-tumor research at the Dana Farber Center for Neuro-Oncology.
But also through the Carla Cares Program, which could be called the philanthropic arm of TommyCar Auto Group. The program assists charitable and non- profit organizations across Western Mass., Southern
Carla Cosenzi has become a solid role model for her children, Niko and Talia, when it comes to getting involved in the community.
Vermont, Southern New Hampshire, and Northern Connecticut. Just a partial list of organizations it has supported through donations and other forms of support includes Baystate Children’s Hospital, Big Brothers Big Sisters, the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, Unify Against Bullying, NoHo Pride, Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Dress for Success West- ern Massachusetts, and many others.
This desire to serve the community — and to do things right all the time — is an operating mindset,
Cosenzi
Continued on page 20
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18 AUGUST 31, 2020
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