Rotary considering car show

PRESCOTT – Prescott’s Rotary Club is considering hosting a car show as a potential annual fundraising event.

To learn about the ins and outs of hosting such an event, James Kelly, a veteran car show organizer,  spoke to the club at its weekly meeting Tuesday. Kelly repeatedly stressed car shows require a lot of work and can be expensive to put on. He told the club not to have high expectations for its first show, should it host one, because it takes time to develop name recognition. He pointed out the club will need trophies, which aren’t cheap, door prizes, best if obtained through a sponsor or donation, and t-shirts. He told the club it would have to raise enough money to pay for these things and everything else would be profit.

Kelly also said there needs to be enough to keep the entire family entertained, especially wives and children. He suggested having games with prizes, saying the club could make up its own games and rules for youngsters.

More importantly, he said the event needs to be advertised at other car shows. “Don’t expect to get a lot of cars at first,” he said, “because you need name recognition. You have to treat it like a business because you’re trying to make money.” Kelly added it’s important to keep the money local and get the community involved. Each year the club would need to start fresh as all the money should be spent from the show.

The important thing, he continued, is to make the event and club memorable to those participating so they’ll want to come back and the event can grow. This can be done by giving participants goody bags with “dash plaques” in some of them. These plaques should also be given to all the sponsors as a sign of appreciation. Door prizes can be obtained from company sponsorships. Once the show ends, he suggested, the club should wait a month before starting work on the next one.

He stressed using the internet as much as possible, saying the club needs to make sure it’s show wouldn’t be in conflict with one within a 50-mile radius on the same day. The internet can be used to contact Chambers of Commerce to find out if their communities have car shows and when they’re held, along with checking various sites for car shows.

Kelly said visitors should get in free, but participants need to be charged. He suggested a $30 entry fee, but making it $25 if they preregister, and making sure they know this is non-refundable. He added the club would need to have them sign disclaimers against anything happening to them or their vehicles. “It helps to furnish a meal for the contestants. Vendors can also be brought in.” The vendors, he added, could be charged $50 as they can use the show to display their products.