Collector car day comes to Brandon

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This article was published 18/07/2022 (1316 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Westman gear heads finally got the opportunity to recognize Collector Car Appreciation Day in person, with the inaugural celebration in Brandon taking place at the Riverbank Discovery Centre grounds on Sunday.

Despite the sweltering temperatures that hovered around 34 C, dozens of motorists still gathered near the Assiniboine River to share their mutual love of vintage, modern and special interest vehicles.

However, speaker Jim Penziwol, who represents the Manitoba Association of Auto Clubs (MAAC), told attendees that this event was more than just your average car show.

Instead, Collector Car Appreciation Day, which has been taking place throughout North America since 2010, also serves as a broader awareness campaign that is meant to showcase the unique challenges that classic car owners face on and off the road.

Penziwol explained how MAAC has been lobbying groups like the provincial government, the RCMP, the Winnipeg Police Service and Manitoba Public Insurance for the last 25 years to make life a little easier for those who drive and maintain vintage vehicles.

“We work really hard on pushing for a collector plate program, and it’s great to see so many people taking advantage of that,” the former MAAC chairman told the crowd on Sunday.

“Your collector plate identifies your car separately from the regular community of cars. You’re actually putting your car in a separate pool of what MPI considers to be limited-used vehicles.”

However, despite all these years of lobbying, Penziwol said there is still a lot of work to do.

“For example, something on our agenda is getting rid of those front licence plates,” he said. “Some of these old cars weren’t just meant for it, so that’s something we push for in every meeting.”

Outside of government lobbying, Penziwol mentioned that Collector Car Appreciation Day is also about highlighting how local car clubs are contributing members of their respective communities, whether that means generating money for the economy through organizing public events or giving back to those in need.

To make this point, Penziwol handed out a $1,000 scholarship to recent Neepawa Area Collegiate graduate Korbin Kurmann-Madill, who is planning to attend Assiniboine Community College this upcoming fall to pursue a career in truck and transport mechanics.

“I’m honoured and privileged to accept this scholarship from MAAC,” Kurmann-Madill said on Sunday. “I wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for many people, and I’ll be glad to be able to add MAAC and their supporters to this list.”

Organizer Dave Burba, who put this local Collector Car Appreciation Day together through the Brandon and Area Car Enthusiasts (BACE) group, used his time on the microphone to talk about some of the charitable initiatives that he has spearheaded through his car club, the Road Rebels.

This includes extensive work with the Elspeth Reid Family Resource Centre, with the Road Rebels raising, according to Burba, around $50,000 to $60,000 over the past couple of years to enhance the organization’s transportation capacity and drop-in playtime program.

“The purpose of this [event] is just to get the public and everybody more aware of the good the car community can do for the [broader] community,” he said. “We’re not all just hoodlums screaming around corners and everything else.”

Burba later told the Sun that he has been wanting to organize a local Collector Car Appreciation Day celebration since around 2016 or 2017, and was even ready to pull the trigger in the summer of 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

But after putting his plans on hold for two years, Burba is just happy that they were able to move forward with this event in 2022 and hopes that it becomes a regular addition to BACE’s summer programming lineup moving forward.

“It’s something we’ve been waiting for a long time, and we’re very excited to do it,” he said. “It puts a little more of a spotlight on the car community and what we do. So I think it’s a positive thing, for sure.”

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

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