Area residents enjoy taking in the second annual Bell Insurance DeGraff Car Show July 19. (EXAMINER PHOTO | SHARYN KOPF)
The second annual Bell Insurance DeGraff Car Show more than doubled from their 2023 numbers, bringing in 204 cars compared to about 75 a year ago.
“It’s amazing,” organizer Eric Bell said in response to the large turnout on Friday, July 19. “We’ve wanted to do this for 20 years. And they showed up.”
For the past year, Bell put in the legwork needed to see the kind of increase they had Friday, which included people from at least seven car clubs. Those came from a variety of places, like Sidney and Urbana.
And Bell doesn’t charge for reservations. “We want to keep it cheap or free for everyone. And we handed out gift bags to the participants.”
Buckeye State Bank provided sponsorship for the car show as well and assisted with the food sponsorship, prize giveaways and sent postcards to their members, inviting them to participate in the show.
Bell and his team worked to keep the food local, bringing in Vic’s Country Cookin’ from Quincy and providing hot dogs and chips in front of the Bell Insurance office on Main Street.
In addition, Buckeye Pizza sold pepperoni and cheese pizza by the slice and Orphan Annie’s had a steady stream of customers.
“We don’t want this to be a vendors’ market,” Bell explained.
In the end, though, he narrowed the night down to a simple fact:
“It’s just people enjoying people and cars.”
You never know what you’ll see at a car show, and the DeGraff Car Show July 19 had fun displays, like old suitcases, the town’s vintage firetruck and this bit of nostalgia in a classic carhop tray. (EXAMINER PHOTO | SHARYN KOPF)