Daniel Walsh loved cars.

So after the 15-year-old Waterford resident died of leukemia in December, his friend Aiden Chaffee knew how he wanted to honor Daniel.

“I just wanted to remember him,” Chaffee said as brightly colored and antique cars pealed out of the parking lot of The Bridge Market in Groton after the car show he organized on June 11.

Chaffee, 15 and softspoken, raised more than $200 in donations that he will give to the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford to help children with cancer.

Randy Walsh, Daniel’s father, attended the event and spent several minutes thanking Chaffee and his family for the show.

Children’s cancer treatment and research doesn’t get enough funding, he said, so he was thankful for the dollars Chaffee raised.

“Not only are they thinking about (Daniel), they’re also thinking about other kids,”

Walsh brought a car to the show that is covered in handwritten notes that people wrote after a candlelight vigil that took place for Daniel at Waterford Speed Bowl in December.

Daniel had been diagnosed with cancer before and was in remission, but the illness returned last year and he died in December.

The community rallied around the family, Walsh said.

“He was a good kid,” he said.