Fantastic, phenomenal, awesome, amazing – these are just some of the words Rimbey Lions Club member Laverne Oberhammer used to describe the Rock’n Rimbey event on Aug. 19, 20 and 21.
“To have a club come together like this, it says a lot for our community,” Oberhammer said. “To have our club put on an event like this for the community was outstanding, and to see the community support for this event was out of this world.”
Oberhammer said the entire three-day event was a great success – 82 cars came out for the drive-in movie, which was shown on a huge 60-foot by 30-foot screen, there was a line-up for the Lions’ Soda Pop Social event and Saturday’s On The Boardwalk event saw local businesses busy with shoppers. The Cruz Night event had 45 cars making the tour from Rimbey to Eckville, Sylvan Lake, Bentley and back to Rimbey, the Parkin’ In The Park car show at PasKaPoo Park drew a large number of car enthusiasts and Duel In The Dirt ran all weekend at the racetrack, cheered on by huge crowds.
The Rock’n Rimbey Show’n Shine had 67 participants and handed out four awards. The People’s Choice award went to Bert and Pat Pringle of Didsbury and their 1931 Ford “Vicky.” Best Car went to Evan and Maureen of Main Street Cruisers from Edmonton with their 2013 Nissan 370Z; Best Truck went to Sean Atkinson, from Rimbey, with his 1956 GMC Model 9420. The winner of the random draw was Curtis Lund, of Red Deer, and his 1949 Mercury Model 8. The participant that came from farthest away was Tony Bakowy and his 1970 Dodge Charger, coming from Sibbald, Alta., about 370 kilometres away.
“We are certainly optimistic we’ll be doing this again,” Oberhammer said. “It was absolutely fantastic. We wanted to bring the sense of community back to life, which is what helps the community survive. And that’s what happened.”
Oberhammer said the community is owed a lot of praise for the weekend’s success.
“We could not give enough applause to the members of the community – residents, businesses, non-profit groups. It was amazing. It was refreshing to see everyone come together like that.”
