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Stettler Car Club’s annual Show’n Shine event a success among car lovers

Stettler Car Club’s annual event Show ‘n Shine had a great turnout this year.
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1. Joanne Lee shows off her 1965 Volvo at the Show 'n Shine event. Her father bought it when it was fairly new and she learnt to drive on it. It is unique because all parts are original. It had been parked in the garage for 25 years

Stettler Car Club’s annual event Show ‘n Shine had a great turnout this year as car owners and enthusiasts thronged the parking lot of the Stettler Mall as well as adjacent lots. Visitors came out with friends and families to enter their cars or to support participants.

 

One of the organizers, Kerry Short said after the event they would cruise down to the Big Valley for a catered supper, “We are planning to head out between three and four, and do a little cruise around town. There’s a lot of history with some of the old cars. For instance, there’s a Volvo here, which is over 50 years old but it has all original parts. The owners even have the invoices for the work that was done back in 1967. The spark plug was a dollar and ten cents, so that’s pretty impressive some of the vehicles that are here.”

 

Owner of the 1965 Volvo with original parts was Joanne Lee, who had learnt how to drive on that car. She was very pleased that the car was still in pristine condition. Lee said, “My father bought it when it was just half year old. Its been parked in his garage for 25 years. Then we started it up again and we brought it out here and its in all original condition. It was fun to learn to drive on it in the city. It was quite an experience.”

 

Each car parked there had so much history, often older than the present owner, passed down through generations. Short said that’s what makes the event such a great one. He added, “The muscle cars are also incredible. They have really made a comeback in the past couple of years. And there are some race cars here. One of the dune-buggy type race cars is putting out 700 horsepower and only weighs 1200 pounds, which is pretty impressive.”

 

Gary Rushton who sat in his red 1955 Chev half-tonne truck with his best friend Barry Haner, owner of a 1953 Chev convertible said, “We have been friends and neighbours for years. And these are our cars. We try and come out every year.”

 

There was a booth set up at the event for anti-bullying. Corey Ripley, the organizer had been a bully when he was in school. But as he grew up and realized the consequences he decided to make a change. Ripley said, “This campaign started 15 years ago actually. It has been in 80 central Alberta towns. We do what we can, each year in each town.”

With limited resources, Ripley is trying to reach out to wider audiences and communities. He added, “We are trying to promote the anti-bullying campaign at car shows and in summer we do the ‘ride for awareness’. Today we are at six different locations. We send guys in the school to talk to the kids. We do about 20–30 schools a month. We now have ‘bikers against bullying’. Even this week we are riding a bunch of kids in different communities to schools who have been bullied.”

 

The Show ‘n Shine was a great event for the community to come together and support each other in their passion for cars.