Soo Line Cruisers Car Club members are shining up their classic cars for Saturday's big event

Local classic car owner Jarrod Stroeder is one of the members of the Soo Line Cruisers, the group hosting the 20th Annual Show & Shine Car Show this Saturday.

Each year, the event fills the streets of downtown Weyburn with cars from 100 years old to brand new, all shined up and ready for car lovers to peruse.

Stroeder will be there with his 1968 Chevy Impala for his second Show & Shine.

"I started restoration on this car and I finished it up last year. I actually built a garage so that I could work on it, and I did everything myself except for the paint and bodywork. I had East-Wey Auto Body do that," he shared.

He said shows like this, and others the Soo Line Cruisers attend throughout the season throughout the southern part of the province, are the reward for all the hard work that goes into these cars.

"All the hours, and busted knuckles, and frustrating evenings and weekends working on your vehicle, the reward and the payoff is to take it to events like the one this Saturday, and show it off, and have people come up and appreciate what you've done and the hard work you put in."

For attendees, car shows are not just for looking at cars - they're also for talking about the cars with the participants.

"I certainly like to walk around and look at the other vehicles and talk to people about their cars, but there's a little bit of a responsibility to kind of hang out around your car in case someone wants to talk to it and you want to be approachable," Stroeder explained. "Being approachable and pleasant is a big part of it."

"When they see a finished product, I mean not that there's really ever a finished product, but you get people who ask how they could start, or or people come up with different questions. One person will come up and have a question about the engine and another person will come up and have a question about the interior. Everyone is at different stages of their own restorations, so it's nice to talk to people about different aspects of the car. When you've done a, you know start to finish, build."

Stroeder said he likes to take out his car as often as he can. 

"I love driving it around town. You'll probably see me driving around town with my daughter, Emily, in the backseat."

He said they'll be, "polishing up our cars Friday night before the show, give them a little bit of wax and a little spray-on detailer and just make sure they're as shiny as possible. A little 'spit shine'."

This is the 20th annual Show & Shine, which means the event becomes more and more refined each year and improves somehow every time it's held.

For example, five different non-profits will be benefitted from the event, including the Weyburn Care-A-Van Society, the Weyburn Salvation Army Food Bank, the Weyburn Humane Society, the Isaiah Evans Fund, and the Weyburn Fire Brigade. 

The non-perishable food item donation is new this year.

"We're bringing out a truck and we're trying to fill the truck box with nonperishable food items, so if anyone coming out to the car show wants to bring a nonperishable food item, you'll be able to put it in a box of this truck and we can fill it," invited Stroeder.

Bottles and cans will be accepted by the Hopfe Training Centre's 18 Wheels of Goodness trailer, which will also be set up at the show. All the proceeds from filling the trailer will go to the Isaiah Evans Fund.

Also new this year is the 'best in show' will become an opportunity for two prizes, as both the participants and the attendees can vote for their favourite cars.

"Some shows have judges, but we wanted to leave it kind of up to the people this year, those are the funnest awards anyways to have people's choice and those are the awards that really make you feel special because it's all about the people. If people didn't come out to these car shows, they wouldn't be as fun as they are."
 
"The participants' choice ballot is going to be in your swag bag when you register your vehicle at the Legion, and the people's choice ballots are going to be available at the stage as well as on our at our merch table," explained Stroeder. "We're going to be selling our merchandise and our T-shirts in a merch tent. You can pick up a ballot there, then go around, all the cars will be numbered. You can select your favourite car and then drop them back off at the at the merch tent and we will pick the winner by the end of the day."

He said they wanted to leave it in the hands of the people.

"Because it's all about the people, and we wouldn't be able to put on these amazing shows without the peoples' support. So we really want to let them get involved and have a say in who they feel has the nicest car."

Stroeder added that you don't have to be an expert on cars to enjoy a car show. 

"A lot of the cars, especially from the 40s and 50s, were works of art. You look at the flowing lines and the metal trim pieces and the interior dashes, and it's just like, magical. So it's just really nice to see and you don't have to be an expert to appreciate those types of things. It's just the community coming together, hanging out together, and showing appreciation for cars, and each other, really. We wouldn't be able to do this if we didn't live in a community like Weyburn."

Registration for participants is at 10:00 a.m. at the Weyburn Legion. The show begins at 11:00 a.m. and runs until 4:00 p.m. The food donation truck will be next to the stage, which will be located at the intersection of Souris Avenue and Third Street by the Discover Weyburn studios.