For the second straight year, the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) hosted their annual car show April 26. The event hosts cars in a tournament-style voting system, voted on by the JROTC cadets.

“The car show was started last year as a new alternative way of fundraising money,” junior cadet Edwin Steinach said. “We also started the show in order to get a little more recognition around the community and the past two years have been great successes.”

The car show was started by volunteers in the JROTC booster club, and has grown exponentially more this year as compared to the previous year.

“The car show is a fundraiser to raise money for the program so we can have our marine corps birthday ball and to pay for our drill team,” junior cadet James Lamb said. “The booster club spent many hours of hard work to organize the show and make it possible.”

At the event, the JROTC raised money through a $35 entry fee, sponsors and a percentage of profits from vendors.

“Although a big reason for the show was to raise money for the program, it is also a way to advertise the program and attract potential students to join our program by giving them the chance to engage with us,” Lamb said.

Compared to last year, this year’s show was considerably larger, with over 30 vendors present and approximately 30 cars entered into the competition.

“The car show was very entertaining and exciting,” sophomore attendee Zachary Sanders said. “Seeing all those new and old cars really made my day.”

There were multiple brackets that contained cars ranging from the 1940s to modern-day, voted on by 30 independent judges, with the winner eventually decided by the JROTC cadets.

“[I liked] seeing all the classic cars and how well kept they were,” Sanders said. “My favorite cars were a 1967 Corvette and an old 40s style Chevy truck.”

The winner of the competition this year was a 1984 Black Pontiac Trans Am. For the winner’s prize, he received a trophy made of spare car parts by the JROTC booster club. 

“[Even though] the primary purpose of this show was to raise money for our program, the show was a great option to give back to the community,” Steinach said. “Overall, I had a great time with the Battalion and look forward to it next year.”