12th Annual Cruisin’ for a Cure

Billed as the World’s Largest One-Day Charity Car Show, the 12th Annual Cruisin for a Cure was all that and more. The event is a fundraising effort for the City of Hope Prostate Cancer Program. All participants make their donation check out to City of Hope and not to an organization or company. This assures the monies are not only tax deductible but are guaranteed to go towards the benefit advertised.

The show is unique because there are doctors and nurses there offering free testing for prostate cancer. As a participant or spectator you can have a bit of blood drawn for a PSA test or opt for the DRE with a doctor in a private coach. Each year I go for the PSA and send the results to my doctor. If the numbers are ever elevated he has a benchmark to call on and thus alert me to any possible danger or come in for more testing. A great service to our hot rodding community!

This year there were some new items added to the show. One of them was the Cars for Sale Corral. Our friend Craig Hoelzel of Flying Deuces promotions put the corral together. There were over 50 classics, customs and hot rods under the roof with anxious sellers and hungry buyers swarming the shiny paint and chrome.

Meguiars added to their bevy of vehicles in an invitational show under the new Hangar building at the fairgrounds. Out front was the beautiful green custom built by new OC favorite Chopit Kustoms. Inside was everything from model T’s to David Washington’s 1962 Nova doorslammer dragster.

This event is open to all makes, models and years and estimated 5000 cars were in attendance, which made the cruise strip at times a stand-still. And that is what has made this show so cool. Debbie Baker and Ross Kroenert created the show with a cruise route running through the show. You get to hear the sometimes un-streetable cars roar and roll by.

There are vendor booths along the cruise route as well as inside building 10. A model car contest was also a big hit in the vendor building. Legends were there as well. Gene Winfield had a table and a couple of cars set up, George Barris was along the cruise route with his Barrietz girls and the batmobile. His son Brett was inside manning the memorabilia/apparel table too.

The organizers have already made plans for next year’s event. If you are in the Southern California area on Saturday Sept. 22nd 2012 make it a point to at least attend the 13th Annual Cruisin for a Cure. Visit their website at www.CruisinforaCure.com for more information!