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Father’s Day Car Show at South Range High attracts families
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Cindy Reynolds stands beside her 1978 BMW 320 and her husband, Rob, shows off his 1981 Volkswagen Rabbit convertible Sunday at the seventh annual Beaver Township Ruritan Father’s Day car show. The couple says they are “nuts” about cars.
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A hand-built 1927 Ford Model T bucket street rod with a 1963 327 Corvette engine, owned by Fred Rome of Youngstown, was one of 145 vehicles on display Sunday at the Beaver Township Father’s Day car show.
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Dave Doepker of Greenford stands with his restored 1957 Willys Overland wagon at the seventh annual Beaver Township Ruritan Father’s Day car show Sunday at South Range High School in North Lima.
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This shows the dashboard of a restored 1957 Willys Overland wagon that Dave Doepker of Greenford showed at Sunday’s June 19 seventh annual Beaver Township Ruritan Father’s Day. Doepker’s son, Ed, is getting into the family hobby by restoring a1978 CT 5 Jeep.
NORTH LIMA
Beaver Township Ruritan’s seventh annual Father’s Day Car Show is an event for the whole family to enjoy, said the Rev. Renae Meggitt, Ruritan president. The large number of children and women among participants and spectators drove her point home.
Sunday’s event, taking place for the first time at the new South Range High School, attracted the largest number of vehicles, 145, in the show’s history, said Rev. Meggitt, pastor of Calvary United Methodist Church in North Lima.
Top winners for the event were Wayne Sitler, whose 1939 half-ton pickup won the People’s Choice Trophy and the award for Best Truck.
Jerry Miglette received the Ruritan’s Choice Trophy and his 1932 Ford coupe also was chosen Best Street Rod.
There were 19 classes with two trophies presented in each, organizers said.
Proceeds from the show go back to the community, Rev. Meggett said. For instance, the Ruritan recently presented four $1,000 college scholarships to local students; and the group helps support local students chosen for Boys and Girls State and the Good Hope Lutheran Church’s summer day camp, she said.
Rob and Cindy Reynolds of Fairfield Township are a married couple for whom car shows are family affairs.
Cindy, a 1972 graduate of South Range High School, had her 1978 BMW on display Sunday; and Rob, a 1970 graduate of Berlin Center Western Reserve High School, showed off his 1991 Volkswagen Rabbit convertible. They have six classic vehicles, all of which the couple has restored themselves.
“I make them run, and Cindy does the inside and makes them pretty,” said Rob, who is laid off from NAPA auto parts.
“We do it for fun and to see the people we’ve met at car shows over the years,” Cindy said.
Ken Staats of Columbiana doesn’t restore vehicles himself, but he gets a kick out of his 1941 Ford convertible with the “cool” fender skirts. Staats said the first car he owned to drive was a 1924 Moon. “I paid $50 for it, but it never ran good so I traded for a Model A. Ford.”
A retired air reserve technician for the 910th Airlift Wing at the Youngstown Air Reserve Station in Vienna, Dave Doepker of Greenford, bought his eye-catching bright orange 1957 Willys Overland about 30 years ago in California.
Showing and restoring classic automobiles is also becoming a family affair for the Doepkers. His son, Ed, is restoring a 1978 CT 5 Jeep.