Ryan LaFontaine in fast lane to raise money for cancer

Ryan LaFontaine talks fast. That's not to say he's a fast-talker, which is something entirely different, especially in his business. But the neurons are buzzing and the thoughts are revving and there's lots to do, always, and the words come racing out ...

Except when he gets to the story about that one customer. The one who invited himself into LaFontaine's big office, just off the lounge at LaFontaine Buick GMC Cadillac in Highland. Who closed the door and sat down. Who had LaFontaine thinking, uh-oh, what did we do wrong?

That customer. The 65-year-old man who broke down in deep, wrenching sobs.

He's found a lump on his neck, the man said, the same way LaFontaine had. Now what?

LaFontaine, 32, hesitated when he was asked to run for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Man of the Year. He's outgoing, but he's also private. Until he started raising money, some people fairly close to him didn't even know he'd had Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Clearly, though, there was a need. For research dollars, always. And for someone to talk about this thing, so a 65-year-old man with what turns out to be a benign bump isn't so paralyzed with fear that the only person he can turn to is the general manager at a car store.

So LaFontaine said yes -- on his terms.

All or nothing

For most people, campaigning for Man or Woman of the Year is the grown-up version of running for senior class secretary. You tell a few friends, collect some checks, maybe hold a bake sale and then dance at the banquet.

Every dollar raised counts as a vote, and in Michigan, $4,000 used to be a dominating number. Last year, the winner upped the ante to $32,000.

Last week, LaFontaine blew past $125,000 -- and that's before the golf outing Sunday, the euchre tournament May 7, the family day at the Milford YMCA on May 8, or the classic car show with the raffle for two Pontiac Solstice convertibles May 13.

If you're going to be an SUV, be an Escalade. "Running and gunning," he says. Whatever the game, he plays to win, and "I don't have a slow speed."

In high school, LaFontaine was a 5-foot-6, 140-pound running back. By then, he was already selling cars. At 21, he was a sales manager, and 10 years later he was still putting in more hours than anyone else at his dealership, determined to prove every day that he had more going for him than his last name.

A close family

Mike Sr. bought a Toyota shop in Dearborn in 1980. Today he and his wife, Maureen, own six stores, each managed by Ryan, Mike Jr. or their cousin Matt.

They're a close bunch. Ryan, wife Sarah and their 15-month-old twin boys live across Duck Lake from his parents. His sister, Kelley Hinsperger, helps oversee public relations and events for the massive Buick GMC Cadillac dealership, with its boutique, cafe and hair salon.

She's part of the hands-on committee running his campaign, and the day his CT scan came back positive, it was his dad who met him on the side of a road between two of the dealerships and took him for a biopsy.

Ryan had been coughing. Construction dust, he figured; the new place was taking shape along Highland Road, heading for a grand opening in June 2008.

When the confetti fell, he was six weeks into chemo. Afterward, he finally told his managers. Then he walked back to the salon and had a stylist shave his head.

Treatment ended that Halloween, and he's in full remission. Sarah is pregnant with another set of twins. He's barely missed a day of work or a step or a syllable.

If you want to sign up for golf or buy a raffle ticket or chime in some other way, he says, hit the website: http://www.thefamilydeal.com">www.thefamilydeal.com. The convertibles were the last two he had, one a stick and one not, alike but still different. Credit the fraternal infants for giving him the idea.

A car dealer in Kansas City was the national Man of the Year in 2009, with $186,000. If everything goes right, LaFontaine could catch him. He could fall short and still be the best in the country. Or he could get lapped, and he's OK with that.

"I gave it every ounce of my effort," he says. "The cause wins either way." He says it with conviction, and with speed.

nrubin@detnews.com">nrubin@detnews.com (313) 222-1874