Street Rods Show will benefit the local Habitat for Humanity

By Sally Voth -- svoth@nvdaily.com

EDINBURG -- Members of a local automobile club are hoping their old cars help build new houses.

At the 28th annual Skyline Street Rods Show on June 28 at the Edinburg Town Park, donations to Habitat for Humanity will be accepted in lieu of registration fees, Skyline Street Rods Association Treasurer Norm Kerber said.

The show is from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and is open to all cars built in 1984 or before, he said.

In the past, participants paid to register for the show, he said.

"This year, it's advertised as free," Kerber said. "However, we will take a donation. Any donations they make will go to Habitat for Humanity."

Additionally, the 14-member car club is allowing local Boy Scouts to use its food trailer to sell food during the show and keep the proceeds.

"We were just sitting at a meeting one night, [and] one of the guys brought it up, maybe we could do something for a local charity," said Kerber, the owner of a 1965 Ford Thunderbird convertible. "We pushed it around."

Several club members knew Larry Baker, president of the Shenandoah County chapter of Habitat, he said. Kerber himself has helped out on some smaller projects.

"Three of us in the car show had just got back from Louisiana with our church," Kerber said.

They were assisting victims of Hurricane Katrina with housing needs.

"The idea just mushroomed," Kerber said. "The shows were kind of break-even. We never really made any money off of them."

Twenty trophies will be handed out, as will door prizes and other giveaways, he said. There will be a DJ, who will most likely play music from the 1950s and 1960s.

"Generally, we get about 130-150 cars on a nice day, so we're hoping for every bit of that," Kerber said.

Baker said he'd met with the street rod enthusiasts last week to explain Habitat's mission.

"We were extremely pleased that they picked us as an organization to send donations to us," he said.

The club meets the second Tuesday of the month, Kerber said. For more information, call Kerber at 459-2181.