Editor: As we look back at another successful Langley Good Times Cruise-In, the executive would like to thank all the participants for their input and efforts. We need all of them.
We need volunteers for the hard work of the show day, and we need other volunteers to accomplish all the behind the scenes jobs that go unnoticed, unless they are not done. We need the co-operation of the City, the community and the local businesses to put up with and make the best of the disruptions caused by closing down the City for a day, by jamming more cars and people into it than it was designed for.
We need sponsors who can see the value of assisting our show, we need the vendors who bring their wares to the marketplace to make it more attractive, we need the 100,000-plus spectators to come, and we need the car owners to bring it all together.
We would like to start by thanking the City of Langley and Mayor Peter Fassbender for inviting us back each year to hold this event, and he has already invited us back in 2013. This City has, for as long as I recall, been a car-crazy city and is the ideal place for such a show. The businesses in the City also have supported us despite the disruption of business that we cause. We hope that the exposure to the huge crowds of people can somehow offset the one day of inconvenience.
The major sponsors who contribute cash, real estate to hold the show, incredible goods that we can raffle off and make a few people incredibly happy, or goods and services that we need to run the show, sometimes with too little recognition, are the next to be thanked. We are honoured to be assisted by so many great companies and their staff.
Of course there is also the press who go out of their way to advertise and promote the show — bravo. The Times has done a bang-up job of covering the show and producing an exceptional show special insert. Without the newspaper doing that, we would have a bunch of car owners sitting next to their cars.
GM brings an incredible display of current autos and technology, and Lordco gathers and donates all the tools and things that make up the Dream Garage. They are major sponsors upon whom we depend.
We also thank the Cascades Casino who, much to the detriment of their own business, shut down their enormous front parking lot to allow us use of it for our marketplace for the day. They round out the really big sponsors.
There are many other sponsors and we encourage everybody to check the show special news insert and our website to see who they are. Please consider supporting them as they have supported Cruise-In.
The vendors take a lot of time and energy to bring their business to our marketplace and display it for the crowds to see. We have an incredible range of goods and services displayed all day with great enthusiasm.
We have food vendors who bring us hamburgers and hot dogs and coffee and cold drinks to keep us going all day. These groups are all service groups who donate all of their profits to charitable causes except for one, In N Out Burger, which is a regular business based in the U.S.A.
However, we want everybody to know that they donate not just the profits; they donate all the revenue from the show. They send us a cash donation, they pay all their own expenses and they pay their own employees for the trip. They have to cover the signs on their truck as they travel, as they have such popularity throughout the U.S.A. And why do they come here? They do it because they believe in the charitable nature of our show, and the incredible reception they get from the huge crowds.
The volunteers range all the way from our webmaster to our show front people who make it all come together. It is the charitable spirit of the Langley Cruise-In that makes it worthwhile to most of these people and we hope that keeps it going for many years to come.
We know of several people who chose to spend well over 24 hours at the show overnight to help set up and to help break down and clean up. Volunteers do everything from parking cars and picking up garbage to collecting money and doing the books. Thank you to all those volunteers, you are all heroes to our cause.
Finally, we come to the car owners who bring their cars to the show for display. These people have poured untold thousands of dollars into their cars. Often, these cars are their pride and joy, sometimes the favourite possession in their life, and they bring them out to show everybody.
Thank you to all the car owners for the pride and love that keep these relics and treasures alive, and for allowing us to view them. Your cars are what make the show awesome.
With the thank yous said, we would like to invite all of you to mark Sept. 7, 2013 on your calendar as the date for next year’s show. Please consider coming to our show to support the efforts of the hundreds of people involved, and to assist in raising money for often overlooked local charities. They are the real reason why we do it. See you next year.
Langley Cruise-In executive