Rotary Club’s annual car show will be Saturday, July 13, in new location

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

It will be in a different location, but the 2024 Santa’s Shine & Show car show scheduled for Saturday, July 13, promises the same flash and fun as in previous years.

The Charles City Rotary Club’s summer event typically attracts more than 100 vehicles in a wide variety of makes, models, years and conditions for a show that welcomes cars, trucks and motorcycles.

One of the main efforts of the organizers for this year’s show is making sure people know where it is.

Due to the downtown construction, the event will be in the parking lots near Hot Shots and the Charles City Press (see map) rather than its usual place along Main Street.

“Probably the first thing is to be getting the people familiar with where it’s at so they can get there and get into it,” said Rotary Club member Dennis Donovan, one of the organizers of the show.

John Ebert, another club member, said, “We’re bringing up a lot of directional signs to help with that. Our plan is to put the cars in the Hot Shots area lot, and trucks and motorcycles in the upper area.

“Next year, we intend to be back on Main Street,” Ebert said. “This is out of necessity this year.”

Donovan said registration will run from 8 to 11 a.m., and anyone with a vehicle they’d like to show off is welcome to participate. Entry fee is $20. Awards in various categories will be given out starting about 1:30 p.m.

Three or four judges are lined up who will be rating the vehicles on a 1-to-10 scale in various categories such as paint jobs, interiors and engine compartments.

Ebert said there will be awards for best motorcycle, best overall, top 20 and 20 30 vehicles

“We’ll total up all the points and top point cars are going to win,” Donovan said.

In addition, the first 100 vehicles to register will get a present from Santa.

Several Rotary Club members and spouses spent Monday evening wrapping presents at Donovan’s offices. Scores of area businesses and individuals donated merchandise for gifts, many of them vehicle-related.

Donovan said he expects a big turnout of vehicles again this year.

“I’ve been to Riceville, Osage, Elma, Waverly, Nashua, New Hampton to put up signs, and then I’ve hung up a banner next to the Catholic church to advertise it, and I drove a car in the 4th of July parade,” he said. “It’s been on Facebook.”

Donovan said he expects some exceptional classic cars to be part of the show, and people have been telling him they’ll be bringing a car this year. He encouraged anyone who’d like to show off a vehicle to enter.

During the event, Hot Shots will be selling adult and soft drinks for outdoor consumption within the area of the show, Dave’s Restaurant will be grilling up burgers, hot dogs and brats, and a new food truck is also planned to be on site.

“We’ve got a special new one this year, coming to Charles City. It’s called the Spud Bus,” Donovan said. It will serve baked potatoes with various toppings.

“I think it’s going to be a good addition to the food trucks we have in our community,” he said.

Santa’s Shine and Show was first organized by club members Donovan, Ebert and Chris Garden – all car collectors themselves – in 2021 as part of a Christmas in July summer event for downtown that could also raise some funds to help support the club’s projects.

Funds raised from Santa’s Shine & Show will go toward Rotary Club of Charles City scholarships and community projects such as the club’s current multi-year effort planting and watering trees around town to help replace the thousands of ash trees lost to the emerald ash borer.