Car show, poker run to benefit victim’s family
WARD — An area motorcycle club will host a memorial car show in honor of a local woman who was a victim of domestic violence last year. Kameron Shafer, who was an elementary school teacher for the Ward School District, was allegedly killed by her estranged husband, Robert Shafer, in a murder-suicide on July 27, 2020.
The Kameron Shafer Memorial Truck, Bike & Car Show will take place from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 22.
“My kids both go to school at Ward, and I knew her on a personal level in that sense,” said Jake Perritt, one of the lead organizers of the event. “She was a wonderful teacher.”
Perritt was an officer for the Ward Police Department at the time of the Shafers’ deaths. He is currently the president of the Titan Chapter of the Punishers Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club.
The entry fee for the car show is $20. A memorial poker run will also be conducted the same day, and the cost for it is $10 for a rider and another $10 for a passenger. The poker run will include awards for the best hand and worst hand.
“So far, we have gotten a positive response from it,” Perritt said. “A lot of people are planning to attend, and quite a few vendors have committed to [selling their wares].
“We are hoping to do this every single year. I really want to make this a big deal.”
Perritt said 100 percent of proceeds from the car show and the poker run will go to assist Kameron Shafer’s children.
The event will be at Ward Central Elementary School, where Shafer was a computer-lab teacher. Perritt said she was well-known in the community and “was a pretty big part of the community.”
Shafer leaves behind two children, who are now in the custody of her mom. The fundraiser will help raise money for school supplies for the children, as well as a scholarship in Kameron’s honor, of which her children will be the first recipients.
All About Carz is helping to put on the car show, and Sarah WisemanFord, a representative from the organization, said she was contacted by Perritt and agreed to join this “wonderful opportunity to help the family of Kameron Shafer.”
“It is a heartbreaking situation, and we want the children to know that people do care,” Wiseman-Ford said. “We work hard to bring folks together for many different causes and have also helped individuals.”
She said organizers are planning on more than 100 vehicles for the car show and for many to take part in the poker run.
Registration for the show will begin at 8 a.m. and last until 11 a.m. Perritt said there is a registration form attached to the flyer that participants can fill out prior to the event to expedite the process, but if they show up and want to enter a vehicle, that is possible. He said trophies will be awarded, including Best of Show and Kameron’s Choice, which will be chosen by her children.
Joey Sneed, sergeant of arms for the motorcycle club, said the group’s motto focuses on being in service to others, whether by carrying groceries to someone’s car or helping with a flat tire on the side of the road.
“We want to help, not necessarily just this family,” Sneed said. “What we are doing is providing a scholarship because these days, it is expensive to go to college, and we want to help a child out.
“We are going to put the scholarship in Kameron’s name, and her kids are going to be the first recipients of it.”
Sneed said he did not know Shafer on a personal level, but he was also an officer for the city of Ward during the time of the incident.
“We want to help our community, not necessarily just Ward, but also Lonoke County and the Cabot School District,” Sneed said. “Whatever we can do to help somebody — we are just a bunch of bikers who are big teddy bears.”
For more information, contact Perritt at (501) 259—2896.