Out of this world meeting: Owner of 'galaxy car' answers online plea to meet with young space fan

Windsor, Ont. -

Sophia Berlasty is still on Cloud 9 after an online plea resulted in the eight-year-old with autism getting a ride in her favourite car.

A special meet and greet was arranged this past Sunday evening to make everything happen.

“You could just see the joy as soon as she saw it,” Sophia’s mom Nicole Berlasty says.

Berlasty says her daughter lights up each time they spot the car that’s painted like an outer space galaxy driving around Windsor, most recently during the Ouellette Car Cruise.

“She saw it and she just went nuts,” she says.

Berlasty says the cruise was the first time she was prepared to take a picture of the car telling CTV News she put a plea to the owner on Facebook’s Windsor Car Spotters group, saying her daughter would love to see the “Galaxy Car” up-close once more.

Berlasty says her request was answered within minutes.

“During pandemic times it was just the nicest thing ever to see people say ‘Hey! She’s eight years old, let’s just see if we can make her smile and help her out,” she says.

Fadi Pota brought galaxy themed gift baskets to Sophia Berlasty and her sister for their galaxy car meet-up in Windsor, Ont. (courtesy Nicole Berlasty)

The car owner, Fadi Pota says he’s used to his Z-34 getting attention due to its size, sound and colour.

“To me? It wasn’t even a big deal. It was a no brainer,” he says. “I was like, 100 per cent!”

Pota brought galaxy themed gift baskets to give to Sophia and her sister, who also has autism, after learning the youngster is an aspiring space explorer.

“I just wanted to make sure that situation was particularly special,” he says.

Pota says their meeting was “meant to be” after revealing he wasn’t aware the Ouellette cruise was taking place at the same time he drove by, saying he was just going home from work, adding he had just joined the WCS online group three days earlier.

“People started tagging me saying this ‘Fadi! Fadi! This is something amazing!’ And it ended up growing into something really big,” he says.

Berlasty says she had to fight tears back Sunday evening after Pota took Sophia for a ride, saying she had been preparing Sophia all week for the meeting, not knowing what her reaction would be.”

Wonderful, wonderful guy! Went above and beyond for my children it was beautiful,” she says.

“It was amazing! Just for some guy getting tagged in a post? If that man doesn’t have children yet, one day he’s going to be an awesome dad, you can just see the good in him!”