‘Blessing of the Wheels’ returns

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This article was published 16/05/2022 (1422 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In the leadup to Super Run 2022, several Brandon residents took the opportunity on Sunday morning to have their automobile blessed for the year, thanks to the efforts of St. George’s Anglican Church.

Rev. Jonathan Hoskin has worked with the Brandon Road Rebels club since joining the Anglican church in 2016. In a drive-thru style lineup of vehicles following a Sunday morning church service, Hoskin flung holy water on each vehicle before the automobile club made a Sunday cruise to Wawanesa.

Hoskin said it has been a fun and important outreach.

“What an opportunity for us as the church to say, ‘you know what we see what you’re doing and we want to ask God’s blessing on that,’” Hoskin said.

“These are vehicles you haven’t used for a while, you are pulling them out, let’s have a blessing.”

The reverend smiled as he said any other vehicles that were in the vicinity of him flinging the holy water may get blessed anyways.

He recalled a time when he was younger, living in Rocky Mountain House, Alta., where everyone in his family would get into the car and the driver would ask everyone else in the vehicle to close their eyes, for a prayer to bless their trip. The newer Brandon tradition reminds him of that time.

It’s a fun event that began in 2014 thanks to an idea spurred by Diane Fontaine, a member of St. George’s Anglican Church and Dave Burba, the event organizer for Super Run.

Fontaine, a liaison between the church and automobile club, said the event originally started out as a car show and barbecue that would take place across the street from St. George’s.

The former home of McLaren School, now the building for the Brandon School Division on Sixth Street, previously allowed Road Rebels and the church to put the show together in the back field of the school. Prior to the pandemic, Fontaine said the group would welcome nearly any vehicle to join and be blessed, be it semi-trucks, emergency vehicles, motorcycles, kids on bicycles and remote powered cars.

Following pandemic restrictions in 2021, Fontaine and Hoskin suggested the drive-thru style approach for motorists to have their vehicles blessed, and they decided to stick with the same format this year.

“I think any kind of connection like that, it’s nice for the parishioners — particularly some of the seniors would really enjoy the event because they would see cars they’d remember from their youth and get a chance to chat with their owners,” Fontaine said.

“You throw it out there and you see who happens to come by.”

This year, Road Rebels decided to invite car enthusiasts to join them on a Sunday cruise to La Rocque Dining in Wawanesa. Fontaine said it’s a nice opportunity to help out the smaller community bring in some business and for the blessing, the club and the church were able to collect non-perishable food donations and money for the Samaritan House, as they did in 2021.

Road Rebels’ charity of choice has typically been raising proceeds for the Elspeth Reid Centre in Brandon and they are planning a car event with the centre for this September.

Fontaine and her husband Mike geared up to head to Wawanesa in the couple’s 1968 Ford Falcon. A Fontaine family heirloom, Mike’s mother originally bought the vehicle brand new in 1968, and it has stayed in the family ever since.

“He [Mike] is working slowly on getting it restored back to its former glory,” she said as she laughed.

It’s an event that Lindsay Rystephanuk wouldn’t miss for the world as the proud owner of a 1973 Dodge Charger. Rystephanuk was the first in line to be blessed this year and led the pack to Wawanesa. He is currently another coordinator for this year’s Super Run and is a Brandon resident.

“After the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re so happy to be able to get together and host and be a part of these wonderful events that we’ve been accustomed to,” Rystephanuk said.

“It’s just great to see the old guys and new ones that are here, too.”

Currently two and a half months away from Super Run here in Brandon, Rystephanuk said an event of this magnitude cannot be understated as the club anticipates 800 entries.

This year, event co-ordinators are welcoming vintage campers, vintage snow machines and vintage motorcycles to go along with vintage automobiles and he said there is a lot of enthusiasm to go around right now.

“This Super Run that we’re planning at the end of July is a monster, that’s how I’d describe it,” Rystephanuk said.

“We’re going to be rolling out the red carpet all across Western Canada and into the northern United States.”

With new hats made for the event highlighting the feature car from Airdrie, Alta., Rystephanuk is happy to promote the three host cities of the major event, from Brandon in 2022, Saskatoon in 2023 and Red Deer in 2024.

As the weather continues to warm up, he is excited to get more usage out of his 1973 Dodge Charger. Rystephanuk said he had serious work done on the vehicle under the hood to get it up and running. He has owned the vehicle for 20 years and has been driving it for half the time.

The third-generation Charger currently has a 440 V8 engine in it, and he had it painted viper red from the previous copper colour, just like he envisioned it in a dream he had years ago.

“It was my third wish, if you could recall the old genie joke,” he said as he laughed.

“The genie said ‘this is your last wish, make it a good one.’ I’ve had this vision of my car since I was about 16 or 17.”

Following Rystephanuk’s departure, several vehicles joined him on the drive all in anticipation of the big July event.

Super Run 2022 is scheduled to take place July 29-31 at the Grand Valley Campground.

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