The Brandon car club, known as the Road Rebels, hosted their annual fundraiser barbecue last Sunday. Despite less-than-ideal weather earlier in the week, the event was held under beautiful conditions—warm temperatures, sunshine, and a light breeze made for a perfect day.
A total of 121 vehicles participated in the gathering, marking a strong turnout and a memorable way for the club to wrap up their season. This year, the event was renamed the Cal Jackson Memorial Award Show in honor of longtime member Cal Jackson. The change was made at the request of his wife, Viv, and the club was proud to commemorate his legacy in this meaningful way. Cal passed away in May of this year.
The event also featured a pie auction and was considered a great success, with the top pie being bid up to close to $100 with funds going to the Elspeth Reid Family Resource Centre in Brandon. Reid was a devoted volunteer in the Westman Region in helping families and youth in this area.
Road Rebels president, Dave Burba, says they fundraiser for the Elspeth Reid Centre all summer long, at each of their car shows and then present the cheque to the organization in December. He says they average about $4500 in money raised each year, and their yearly support spans 15 years.
"Well, they have, they have no government funding at all," adds Burba. "So, it's all donations and sponsors, things like that. So that's why we've decided to choose them. A lot of other places have a lot of other funding ways, but they really don't have any so they're our charity of choice, you might say."
"We have two major events," shares Burba, "the fall BBQ, which is now Cal Jackson's Memorial and the Cruise and the Dub Winter social. That's our two big ones for sure. We do a lot of little stuff in between, but our winter social will be the last Saturday of February, so mark that on your calendars!" he adds.
This year, in honor of Cal Jackson, his wife Viv and their son Chase, chose the winner of the first ever Cal Jackson Award.
Together they chose the1973 Dodge Challenger owned by Marlon and Reigan LeStrat (members #256) from Brandon. 'Their Challenger is a beautiful car and the story behind the restoration makes it a very worthy recipient of the first ever Cal Jackson award,' stated the club's Facebook post.
Now that the summer car shows have wrapped up, you'd think Burba and the Road Rebels Car Club would be taking it easy. But not so. Not only are they planning the February social event but they're looking ahead to next summer.
"We'll be working on the car shows for next year. We've got to get all our car shows listed before the end of December, so we've got to put some thought into everybody in the MAAC Book, the Mantle Association of Auto Clubs, we got to get that in there. We're trying to try to get Saskatchewan or somebody in Alberta to host the Western Canadian Nationals. We're the only one so far. It would be nice to get another city or town in Saskatchewan or Alberta to step in for next year. So, I'll be working on that. So yeah, it'll be a busy time ... at least till Christmas time!"