Cruizin & Showin Car Show in search of new location

0

Organizers of the annual Cruizin & Showin Car Show are scrambling to find a new location for the event.

Glenn and June East of Seymour have had the event at Shields Park in Seymour each year and conducted the ninth annual show there Saturday. More than 110 cars, trucks and motorcycles were on display.

But the Easts have been told by the city’s parks and recreation department they will not be permitted to have the show at the park in the future for fear of cars damaging the grass.

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]

Click here to purchase photos from this gallery

June East said she was informed of the city’s new rule this spring.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea because everyone likes this location with the shade in August, even though it’s cooler today,” she said.

People specifically enjoy coming to the park for the car show, and it’s an ideal location because of the restroom facilities, she said.

“We’re not happy, and we don’t know where we’re going to go,” she said.

June said she and her husband clean up the park and make sure there is no damage at the conclusion of the car show each year.

“(We) walk the park afterwards, we pick up trash and if there was any damage to the grass, we would fix it,” she said. “We make a good effort to keep it nice.”

She has not seen any damage caused by the show or its participants throughout the nine years of the show, she said.

June said the parks department has a much bigger problem to deal with involving graffiti and damage to picnic tables caused by people who hang out at the park than worrying about damage to grass from a car show.

“There’s graffiti everywhere, and I’m embarrassed,” she said. “It’s not the car people that are doing the damage.”

She even decided to use tablecloths to cover up vulgar language and drawings on the picnic tables.

Since next year will be the 10th anniversary of the car show, June said they intend to find another site for it.

Bob Tabeling, director of the Seymour Parks and Recreation Department, said he hopes the group will be able to find another location for the show and suggested a couple of public spaces the city would be willing to allow them to use.

Tabeling said the city is only wanting to prevent the parks from being damaged.

“It’s basically just trying to protect the green space that we have,” he said.

He said the city would not keep the Cruizin & Showin Car Show from the park, but it would have to be conducted in the parking spaces around the property instead of on the grass in the park.

“If they want to have the car show at the park, that’s not a problem,” he said. “The issue that we have is that more and more car shows want to have their shows in the park, and we really want to start eliminating that because we want to have less automobile traffic going into the parks, driving through the grass.”

Tabeling said a local group conducted a car show earlier this year at Gaiser Park where the cars parked in the parking lot and the public parked elsewhere and walked over for the event.

“It’s a little different, but there are things that can be done at the parks,” he said.

There are car shows that take place in open parking lots and other areas that may be options for the Cruizin & Showin group to explore, Tabeling said.

“It really depends on what each organization is looking for and what they’re wanting to do with their car show,” he said.

The fee to rent the park is $25, which would not cover the cost of damage to the grass if it did happen, especially if had rained and the ground was wet the day of the show, he said.

Tabeling said the city has not had much damage from car shows.

“It’s not that they have damaged any of the physical assets. It’s just if we let one go through, where do we stop it and where do we draw the line at some point?” he said.

Roger Williams of Elizabethtown has shown his 1954 Ford F100 at the Cruizin and Showin Car Show for the last five years and said he was disappointed to learn the show would no longer take place in the park.

“I don’t understand it,” he said. “The people here, I think, take care of the park real well, so I don’t understand why they’re wanting to do away with it here at the park.”

Williams said the trees in the park provide shade when it’s hot, and the atmosphere is a big draw.

“Even during the hot times, it’s always been nice and cool,” he said.

The show is one of the best shows in the area, he said.

“And I go to a lot of shows, probably about 15 a year,” Williams said.

Ron Wellinger of Atlanta drove more than an hour to show his rare 1917 Grant Roadster and he also was disappointed to hear the show was not going to be at the park in the future.

“I think it’s a shame,” he said.

This was the first time Wellinger had been to the show after finding it online.

“It’s a nice show, and I would come back if they found a different location,” he said.

Both Williams and Wellinger enjoy taking their cars to various car shows.

Wellinger likes his car because of how rare it is. It’s the only one like it he has been able to find in the United States and is one of only three worldwide.

He bought the vehicle four years ago. Before that, it was featured in a museum and had been owned by his uncle, who found the vehicle in 1963 in a barn in Upland. The car hadn’t been stored since 1923, and his uncle spent 11 years restoring it.

“He showed it for a while, and then it went to the Heritage Automobile Museum in Kokomo,” he said. “I bought it from my uncle, got it running again and started showing it.”

Most of the car is made from wood, which is what makes it unique. The car’s vintage look also leads many people to ask questions about it.

“People are intrigued about it,” he said.

Williams shows his Ford truck and really enjoys car shows as a hobby. He and his son work on cars together.

“My son and I did all the bodywork on it,” he said.

While Williams enjoys seeing all of the different vehicles at car shows, it’s the friendships built by joining together with people who share similar interests that he likes the most.

“I like the people at car shows,” he said. “You do see a lot of good cars, but I really like the people.”

June said she enjoys organizing the show with her husband because it raises money for a good cause. All of the proceeds from the show go to the Seymour Housing Authority to help local residents in need of housing.

That agency is more aware of people in need and can work directly with those people better than the Easts could, June said.

She wasn’t sure how much money would be raised Saturday, but she said all of it would go to help local families.

“And I think that’s what makes this show popular because people know it’s going to help people,” she said.

No posts to display