Shifting gears on car shows

By ALEXANDER SIMONE

Staff writer

Hillsboro’s 21st annual Route 56 Classic Cruisers Car Show on June 8 will be set apart from other car shows by the number of cans that show up.

The club charges a can of food and $20 as an entry fee and for each car.

The can goes to Marion County’s food bank, and other proceeds go toward Marion County’s toy run, club president Kim Abrahams said.

“It helps the whole county in the long run,” he said. “That’s why we try to get sponsorship from around the county.”

Putting funds toward a charitable cause helps the popularity of the show as well, Wayne Ollenberger said.

“People know what it’s going to,” he said. “I don’t know what other car clubs use their money for, but we help out with different things, and that’s a blessing.”

Club members don’t enter cars in the show or vote on winners, which helps keep the mood light, Abrahams said.

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“It’s more of a fun event instead of getting real,” he said. “We don’t have to get picky that something is wrong with this or that, or it’s not washed right.”

Goessel’s 12th annual car show will bring its own twist June 15, finding a home, as always, at the Mennonite Heritage and Agricultural Museum.

“It definitely changes the atmosphere,” museum director Fern Bartel said. “We don’t normally have a parking lot full of vehicles.”

Bartel admitted she was no car expert, but she enjoys the spectacle all the same.

“I go to appreciate the cars that are not of this time,” she said. “It’s cars that were of the era when I was growing up. It’s the 1960s and the muscle car era, that’s what I enjoy.”

In addition to the show, which carries a $10 entry fee, Goessel schedules its citywide garage sale and other events the same day to appeal to a broader audience, Bartel said.

“We want to have people having a fun day, a fun experience,” she said.

Between 80 and 120 cars enter Hillsboro’s show, Abrahams said.

Those present get to see a procession of winning cars around Hillsboro’s city park, Abrahams said.

“We have them drive around Memorial Park so everyone can see the cars that won,” he said.