As a fundraiser for its National Junior Honor Society, the STEM Academy is hosting a car show and silent auction from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
The campus is located at 4940 South Road at the UTPB entrance at University Boulevard and Oakwood Drive.
There will be awards for best in show, best paint, best engine, best interior, Top 10, people’s choice and STEM’s choice. There will be seating and basketball.
It’s $30 to enter a car, but it’s free to get in.
All the proceeds go to NJHS. Plans are to use the funds for a larger group to attend leadership conventions. Amanda Hart, a STEM teacher, is one of the sponsors for NJHS.
HartRods Custom is the event sponsor. Last year there were around 15-20 cars. This year they’re hoping for 60-70 cars, Jayson Hart said.
Amanda Hart took over the show this year and her husband is Jayson Hart of HartRods.
“He’s made sure we’ve got trophies and awards … just all the little organization parts to it,” Amanda Hart said. Jason Hart said they made custom awards that were hand built.
“I made the metal work then we had a professional pin striper to pin stripe them for us,” Jayson Hart said. O’Reilly’s Auto Parts will be donating some other trophies for the general public pick and for other categories such as the STEM choice. Chris Wray State Farm is also offering giveaways.
Seventh-grader Jaxon Riggen, the National Junior Honor Society president, helped out with the silent auction last year when he was in sixth grade.
He said his family is really into cars, but Riggen is more into sports.
“Since that (the car show) was our biggest thing last year, Miss Hart and I have decided we’ll make it bigger and better this year by adding more trophies, handcrafted like they said and the food trucks …,” Riggen said.
“If anyone wants food, they don’t have to leave or anything,” Riggen said.
Amanda Hart said five food trucks will be coming in and the seventh grade coordinated that as part of their fundraiser. Sixth grade is having a silent auction.
One of the many items is three $50 gun cleanings and a barbecue basket.
Jayson Hart said he visited with many of the local car clubs to get the judges for the show.
“We’ve got several small businesses that have pitched in and helped,” Jayson Hart said.
Riggen said last year they didn’t have a lot of people.
“This year it’s going to be a lot bigger and there’s going to be a lot more cars coming in,” Riggen said.
Students who want to get their community service hours will be helping parking.
Middle/High School Principal Cody Griffin said they want to make the car show a community event.
“We put it out on our social media. We’re reaching out through you guys to make sure people are aware it’s a community event. We want people to come over to our campus. We want them to see the cars and just have a fun event on a Saturday,” Griffin said.
