DISPLAY OF ‘ROLLING ART’ PRODUCES FUN, FUNDS
Car club’s 11th annual event brings community together and aids county food bank
“At the end of the day, it’s rolling art. You can see cars rolling down the avenue, you can see people driving their cars. It’s great.”
— Scott Leatherman, Goombahs Car Club vice president
The streets of Downtown Willow Glen gleamed with color Sunday as hundreds of people displayed their prized cars and trucks in the 11th annual Cruise for a Cause car show and food drive.
Put on by the Goombahs Car Club of San Jose, the event collects funds and food for Second Harvest Food Bank, and gets car lovers together for a day of fun.
“It really does feel like a family event, because it is so focused on the community, so focused on having fun,” Scott Leatherman, the car club’s vice president said Sunday.
He said because the event is free for those showing off their cars and for people coming to take a look, it helps bring the community together and boosts business in the area along Lincoln Avenue.
The show is all about “the things we love,” Leatherman said. “At the end of the day, it’s rolling art,” he said of the variety of cars at the show. “You can see cars rolling down the avenue, you can see people driving their cars. It’s great.”
Exhibitors and visitors who feel inclined are asked to make a donation of cash, food or both to the food bank.
To date, through food and cash, the event has donated the equivalent of more than 140,000 meals to the food bank, which provides food to roughly 250,000 people each month in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, Goombahs said.
“I love it; I come every year,” Ricardo Cortez of San Jose said of the show.
“It’s a family affair,” he added, noting his family helps him display their white 1967 Buick LeSabre.
Cortez was also showing off a miniature, remote-controlled pink 1962 Chevy Impala he built for his young daughter.
Gary Guest of San Jose has a couple of cars he likes to display at shows around the area, and on Sunday he brought out his white 1962 Chevrolet Corvair. The little steel car has an air-cooled, six-cylinder pancake engine in the rear, with a trunk big enough for “four bodies” up front, Guest said.
“I like talking to young
people about motors and cars,” Guest said.
He wants the younger generations to know more about their cars instead of just “buying them and throwing them away when they’re done with them.”
People young and old strolled the tree-lined Lincoln Avenue, taking photos and videos of the variety of muscle cars, lowriders, racers and hot rods.
John Hutton was raised in Willow Glen, but moved to Modesto 25 years ago. This marked his first year showing a car in the Cruise for a Cause event, and he brought his dad’s pastel blue 1959 Chevrolet Apache Fleetside pickup truck to display.
“This truck’s been up and down this road many times,” Hutton said, as his dad, John B. Hutton, used to own a gas station on Lincoln Avenue.
Jim and Sal Vega, brothers from San Jose who came to view custom cars, had never been to this show before, but both said they liked the variety of cars at the show and the vibe.
“Everybody gets along;
everybody’s playing their music,” Jim Vega said.
Robert Gutierrez of San Jose was hanging out under
the shade of a tent, displaying his 1978 Lincoln Continental at the show. He said he likes coming to the event
to enjoy the day with family and friends.
“Basically, what it comes down to is having fun,” he said.