Black River Falls Fire Department's 15th Annual Car Show
Monday, April 29th, 2019 -- 3:18 PM
-The Black River Falls Fire Department is holding their 15th Annual Car Show at Riverside Auto and Toybox Rides in Black River Falls on Sunday, May 19th.I spoke with Mike Zindrick, owner of Riverside Auto, and Mark with the Black River Falls Fire Department, and they explained the car show.
Mark: “This year is the 15th Annual Car Show for the Black River Falls Fire Department. We are greatly appreciative of Riverside Auto and Toybox Rides for letting us hold the car show out here. We run about 230 cars, roughly, give or take, depending on the year. The money raised from this is to send guys to certain trainings or buying some equipment that we’re not able to buy through the budget process. If a new tool comes out, funds from this can help us secure those items.”
They also explained how the popularity of the show keeps bringing back people year after year.
Mark: “We got a lot of people that come back every year. I think last year we ended up with about 30 new people. So, it kinda changes yearly who all shows up. It all depends on the weather. Hopefully we have good weather and it keeps people coming.”
Mike: “That is the name of the game, if Mother Nature cooperates with us we’re in good shape. We’ve avoided the bomb for many years. I hope this isn’t one of them. We’ve had some close calls. We’ve had some intermittent rain now and then, but, for car people, it don’t matter because they’re going to stay, just wipe their car off and roll on.”
“We’ve been doing this for all this time and we’ve got all our people to help set up on Saturday. Makes things easier the more people you got. The easier it gets and the more fun you have. We’ve got it down to a good science. We pretty much know if there’s any hitches. Everything comes off pretty good. And the response from the people, if you participate in their shows, they’re going to reciprocate and they’re going to come back and that’s the way it works. One hand feeds the other.”
“We really appreciate all the people we get. We’ve got them coming as far away as Milwaukee, Marshfield alot, Neillsville quit a bit and we even had a couple customers come and pick up a car from Canada. We had a very momentous year last year. A gentleman built this car about 30-35 years ago and he found it on the internet right here. So, him and his wife came and bought the car. We had a presentation last year and it was pretty interesting. And they promised me they’re coming back this year. We’ve had some very interesting events. A car was given to a kid for his 16th birthday a few years back. They’re from down by Madison and they come back every year, the whole gang. We’ve had some pretty good stuff happen here.”
Riley: “So, it’s almost like a family reunion then?”
Mike: “It is! Because, basically, we’re pretty much the first show and that reason is so we can get it done and get it out of the way, so that we can play for the rest of the summer. And that’s the date that it started out and it works out okay. Some days it’s a little cool, but we work with it.”
Mark: “We’ve had days where it’s been 30 degrees in the morning and then by the afternoon, it’s 75-80 degrees.”
Mike: “The very first year that we did it, we had a tent up there and it didn’t blow down, but part of the pole came out and part of the tent came down. So, that was a little exciting, but that was a learning curve.”
There’s a lot happening at the show including, raffles, a swap meet, great prizes and more.
Mike: “It is a show and shine. We’ve been doing this for several years. There’s about, I think, 5 or 6 different awards that we give out. And it’s a pick. So, my wife and I will go pick a specific car that we like whether it be old, new and one year I picked a tractor. So, it makes no difference. Everybody’s car is equal. Nobody should feel bad. We run into a lot of people that say their car is not of show quality. That is not the idea. The idea is to come here, mingle, walk around and look. Learn something. Maybe you can learn something that could make your car look better by looking at somebody else’s car. You meet people. That’s what it’s all about.”
“The trophy thing, there’s a lot of mixed feelings about that. We get a lot of people that are adamant that we have classes and have trophies, but that’s never going to happen again because it’s too much work and we don’t have the manpower. Some people wonder why some vehicles get a trophy when mine is much nicer? So, we eliminated all the problem. The fire department has a pick, we have a pick, a couple others have a pick like the Miss Jackson County. It’s been working well. Then of course, at the very end of the show, we give out $1,500 in cash. First place is $100 for club participation, 2nd place is $50 and then we give out $50 cash if you have a car there and we draw your name out. And most people are gracious enough to donate it back to the fire department. Some do and some don’t and that’s fine. We appreciate whatever anybody does. Pretty much everybody sticks around and that’s the idea to keep them and get them to stay here. Nobody complains about getting money!”
“And we don’t monkey around. At about 2:30-2:45, we get things going and we start this process. Some of these places drag things on, but not us. We get it done. A lot of people may have a long distance to drive and they get home at a decent time and they still have the Sunday afternoon to do what they want to do. I’m usually here around 6 in the morning and we’ve had people here already. They want to get that front spot. That’s where the most visibility is. We’re not even close to being set up, so we park them and catch them later.”
“We’re still having a swap meet. I was hoping it would take off more than it has, but we’ll keep going with it as long as we get 8-10 swappers. That’s just money for the fire department. So, if you have old car parts or other items, the swapper pays $10, they park their vehicle and then people can walk over and browse what they have.”
Mark: “We’ve had trailers here with guys selling vinyl decals or sunglasses.”
Mike: “It doesn’t matter what kind of thing they’re selling. The only thing we don’t do is they can’t have food. They can’t have a stand because that’s the fire department’s deal. That is the only stipulation there.”
“And spectators are free. There’s no charge for spectators to get in and come and browse. The only thing we do urge is to support the fire department and get something to eat. We’re giving away some tremendous raffle prizes this year. We’ve got two Green Mountain Pellet Grills, beef, a pig.”
Mark: “We have two half a hogs, a $500 gift card to German Hill Equipment, $250 to Ace Home Center and 7th place-6th is $100 cash.”
Mike: “And there’s going to be a silent auction. A nice floor jack has been donated by the auto value parts store in town here. They’ve been a very good partner. They do a lot of stuff for us and do a great job. Another major contributor is Kwik Trip. They donate all the bread and buns. A big tip of the hat to that organization. That’s very good. That’s a lot of money, so when you get all that stuff donated, it’s just that more money to the fire department and that’s what it’s all about.”
Mark: “There’s so many more people and businesses that donate to us. They all help us out.”
Mike: “The list could go on and on. We run through the donors during the day. We have a really good MC who rattles them off during the day. He’s a PR guy! It’s a well oiled machine.”
Mark: “We’ve been doing this for a long time. Between the two of us and some other people, it goes pretty smooth.”
Mike: “My wife does the registering and she has another gal help her. And we’ve got a little junior gal help us, she’s about 12-13 years old. She just loves helping us. And you need to get these younger people involved in this because you have to have someone pick up the slack as we get older in order to keep this thing rolling.”
Mike and Mark stressed that the car show is a family event and not just for car enthusiasts.
Mark: “We try to bring up several of the fire trucks. Of course, all the guys are here, so we might as well bring up some trucks too and it makes it easier if we need to respond to a fire. But it is a family event. We have a gentleman come down and he sets up one or two bouncy houses for the kids. He charges a really small fee for them to bounce around awhile. A couple of the wives on the fire department usually try and do a kids area. Last year, we had some bikes to give away and couple little tablets. And we have candy and stuff for them and some other prizes. Whatever we can come up with is what we do for the kids. We want them to have fun here too. It makes it fun for everybody to enjoy the day. The parents get to look at the cars, everyone enjoys a meal and the kids can have some fun and get their pictures taken with some fire trucks and some firefighters. Whatever they want to do. We’re open to ideas.”
Mike: “It’s to make it a family event is what it boils down to. If anybody has any kind of idea that want to share with us, just let us know. We’ll consider any idea and try and keep everybody happy.”
Mark: “We like changing things up to make it something interesting every year, if possible. We don’t want to make it the same thing every year to some degree, but it does happen. We’re always looking for things to put a little spin on things and make it fun.”
Mike: “It’s May 19th. The third Sunday in May. We’ll be ready to roll by 7:30am-8 o’clock in the morning. We park everybody and get them registered. I think they’ll probably be some door prizes throughout the day. We’ve gotten a lot of stuff donated, so we have a lot of door prizes to get through. We welcome everybody and appreciate you coming down.”
Mark: “Usually registration is 7:30am-Noon. A lot of the raffles start around 2pm-2:30ish. We’ll start raffling things off. At 3pm we’ll do the big raffle for the gas grills and the prizes after that. And that will lead into the trophy presentation and the cash giveaway.”
Mike: “Generally it works out so we’re done by 3:30pm. We don’t drag things out.”
Once again, the car show is happening on Sunday, May 19th at Riverside Auto and Toybox Rides in Black River Falls.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.