2007 New Location $55,000 So Far!

Wheels and Chrome

Means Lots of Money For St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital

The 4th annual Minden Cruisin For A Cure For St. Jude was a huge success. The new location at the Minden Fairgrounds was a hit with the crowds. Schelley Brown the shows organizer and promoter stated, “We had lots of room and parking for everything.” We missed the nostalgia of the Coca-Cola Plant but we still had the antique replica Coca-Cola truck in the background as well as full support from the Hunter family with Coca-Cola of Minden.”
Unique Performance with the Chip Foose creations was on hand with the Foose Challenger valued at over $100,000. This car will be given away later this year by Good Guys you can register on line at the Good Guys web site. The Michael Waltrip NASCAR was also on display all these special show cars were big hits with the crowd.
An estimated crowd of 4000-4500 came to Minden from as far away as the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Alaska, and Florida. Brown stated, “We had people calling from all over the country. I think if we had not had the threat of bad weather earlier in the week the crowd would have been twice the size and we would have had over 350 cars.” This is the first time in the four years of this show it has not had weather issues. Many participants were new to this show and all commented on the fact that they would be back. This makes this show one of the fastest growing in the south. Car magazine coverage in Cruizin’ Style Magazine also is a big factor in the growth of the show.
Over two hundred cars of all makes and models started rolling in around 7 a.m. lining up on Goodwill street to enter the gates of the Minden fairgrounds. Volunteers arrived long before that to get everything prepared for all of the day’s activities. The highlight for everyone was the performance by Minden’s own “Elvis” aka Mike Spillers. A large crowd filled the show barn as Mike preformed a moving show (just as the real Elvis did in 1957 in Minden on the back of a flat bed trailer).
The final count is not in yet but an estimated amount of over $15,000 will be given to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. Several St. Jude families from Minden were on hand to help folks remember the real reason for the show. Tourism Director Lynn Warnock Dorsey seemed to be pleased with the large turnout at this years show. Bringing people in from other areas is the main goal of tourism and that was achieved in a large way for the 4th annual Minden Cruisin’ For A Cure For St. Jude Car Show.
Brown commented, “Next years show is already in the works and will be bigger and better than ever. Without the help of the local car clubs this show would not be possible. This is a lot of work and you have to have lots of folks behind you to do something of this magnitude. The bigger the show the harder it is to handle without a lot of volunteer support.” Plans are already underway and anyone that would like to help as a volunteer is asked to contact Schelley Brown.