Party time!

     We held our annual Christmas party at GR Auto Gallery this year on Friday, December 11.  Tom Baranoski and the staff of GRAG were very accommodating and made room for 22 club members and guests in the showroom area.  Sitting down to a catered dinner surrounded by Ferraris, street rods, Corvettes and Porches was quite unique!  Our guests this year included Ric & Lynne Hoyt, the NSRA Southern Michigan Rep, Alan & Linda Roush and Jerry & Marianne McDonald.  Here's wishing all our blog followers and casual readers a very Merry Christmas.  We'll be back next year for another season of ClassiX Street Rod fun.

Old but great news and a new member

The summer of 2015 was so hectic that many of our club activities were never published here.  Instead, our club Facebook page seemed to get most of the attention.  While many members received recognition and awards at many car shows throughout the year, one member's award stands high above the rest.  Fred & Janet Clark's immaculate 1947 Chevy Fleetline has garnered top awards all over the state of Michigan but none were more significant than being selected as a Top Pick at the NSRA Northern Nationals in Kalamazoo in September.  Belated congrats to Fred & Janet!

We recently added a new member family to our group.  Bob & Stacy Jenema of Grant are the newest members of the ClassiX Street Rod Association.  Bob has restored several cars in the past and his latest ride is drop dead gorgeous!  His 396 cu in Chevy powered 1964 Chevelle has to be seen in person to be appreciated.  The candy brandywine paint and chrome detailing has brought home several "Best of Show" trophies this past summer.  Welcome Bob & Stacy!

Some who read our blog may remember our emphasis on a club rule that was established in 2013 when the 6 founding members formed the ClassiX Street Rod Association.  At that time, we chose 1963 and earlier vehicles as the prerequisite for folks applying for membership.  In October the founding members decided to change from 1963 and earlier to 1965 and earlier.  The header on this blog page has been modified to reflect this recent rule change.

Mission Accomplished

     Obviously, I've neglected this blog since last February!  Shame on me.  It seems like most of our club activity information has been posted on our Facebook page all year instead of on this blog.  Regardless, it's time to catch up on an important summer long activity.  As indicated in the February entry, we announced a fund raising project in May at the Kathy Weed Memorial Safety Inspection held at Downs Custom Performance Automotive.  Our special guest at that event was Tiffany Carr, Director of Community and Member Relations at the Grand Rapids Veterans Home.  Tiffany helped us kick off our TV's for Vets campaign which was a summer long campaign of soliciting donations from fellow hot rodders and car show enthusiasts.   Someone from our club made it a point to always have a donation canister displayed at weekly cruise ins at Fricano's Pizza on Alpine and Culvers in Cascade as well as at the many car shows we attended throughout the summer.  Over 200 residents of the GR Veterans Home are without a TV in their rooms and it was our goal to raise funds to help fund TV's for some of these folks.  As the summer neared an end, Tiffany informed us that the Federal Government had approved a grant in the amount of $70,000 to fully fund these TV's.  Our focus then shifted to providing TV's for the dining rooms and alcove areas in the Veterans Home that are used for group movies and quiet areas for some of the more mentally challenged residents.  We ended the campaign having raised $2040.00 and were making plans for the equipment purchase when another major donation was handed to us.  The Casino Club in north Grand Rapids had some excess money in a fund that had been used to send gift boxes to active military personnel serving overseas.  With the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, they had no overseas personnel to service.  Their Casino Club Trooper Box had $1500 left that was added to our $2040 for a grand total of $3540!  We were also given a contact name at the Best Buy store on Alpine and that young man spearheaded an effort to maximize our purchase.
      This morning, five members of the ClassiX Street Rod Association met at Best Buy to finalize the purchase, load the equipment and deliver everything to the GR Veterans Home.  Three of us still had not put our cars away so we had a mini caravan to make the delivery.  The final tally of equipment donated was:  3 - 55" Sharp TV's, 2 - 40" Samsung TV's, 5 wall mount brackets and 12 Samsung Blue Ray dvd players.  The 55" units will be installed in the dining areas and the 40" units will be for alcoves.  Five of the dvd players will be installed with the TV's while the remaining seven will be added to some other select residences within the facility.   As a club, we would like to sincerely thank Doug Fricano and his staff at Fricano's Pizza as well as Steve Stephan, the Culvers owner for helping us promote this very worthwhile program.  We couldn't have done this without the generosity of all our fellow car loving friends who dropped cash in the cans all summer long.  A BIG tip o' the straw hat to each and every one of those who helped make a difference in lives of those Veterans.

Left to right above are club members Phil Viviano, Pete Derridinger, Jon Hansen, Rick Nielsen and Steve Melville.  Steve furnished his truck to transport the donation from Best Buy to the Veterans Home.

A new year

Hello again.   We're back after several months of not posting to the blog page.  We had several car shows and dinner activities since last September but the blog got neglected.  Sorry about that!  So, now it's a new year and we're hoping for an early spring to help everyone recover from a long, cold, snowy winter!  First thing on the agenda is to make public the announcement made at our Christmas Party in December.  Roy Drumm, the leader of the Michigan NSRA Safety Team announced the addition of two new members to his inspection staff.  Pete Derridinger and Jon Hansen of the ClassiX Street Rod Association are the newest additions to the team.  Pete & Jon are hoping to provide localized street rod inspections in the West Michigan area.  Stay tuned for contact information.

Second on the list of coming activities is the 2nd annual Kathy Weed Memorial NSRA Safety Inspection and Downs Custom Performance Automotive Open House coming up in May.  Last year's event was so well received that NSRA and Tom Borisch of Downs have agreed to make this an NSRA Appreciation Day for 2015.  Downs is currently in the process of moving to a new location in Grand Rapids at 900 47th Street SW and will host this year's event at their new location.  Besides the safety inspection, massive door prizes, free food and open house, ClassiX SRA will be announcing a new fund raiser aimed at assisting some local military veterans.  A special guest will be on hand to help us kick off this summer long fund raiser. 

That's all for now.  Stay tuned for more information soon!