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March 19th, 2024

joe robertson car show flyerROBERT PIERCE • Leader & Times

 

Autumn is nearly here, with the official start of the season coming early next week.

As summer comes to a close, for the sixth year, Friends of Meade Lake State Park will host its sixth annual edition of the Joe Robertson Memorial Car Show Saturday at the park. Registration for the car show this year is $10, and participants also can enter a 50/50 raffle and a $500 cash drawing. Registration is from 8 a.m. to noon, with winners of the raffle and drawing, as well as the people’s choice award announced at 2 p.m.

Meade Lake Administrative Specialist Tiffany Turley said the recent COVID-19 pandemic has had both positive and negative effects on the park as a whole this year.

“It’s actually increased our visitation quite a bit, especially with the stay-at-home order,” she said. “We’ve had to cancel some of our other events we’ve had in the park because of COVID-19, but since July, we’ve been able to keep all of our events. It’s starting to slow down again now that stuff’s starting to open up.”

The $10 registration fee is down from last year’s $25 charge, and Turley said this is primarily to help people with the financial burden brought on by COVID-19.

“Usually, we have several more categories and awards, but because businesses are doing less for donations this year, we are just doing the $500 cash drawing and the 50/50 registration,” she said. “We’re also going to have the people’s choice award.”

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Turley said Meade Lake had more than its fair share of campers during the recent Labor Day weekend, and she said the car show is a great way to end summer and start fall.

The show normally attracts cars from around Southwest Kansas and the surrounding area. Turley said she was unsure of this year’s attendees’ locations.

“I’ve not heard anything this year as to if anybody’s planning on coming from out of state,” she said. “I believe last year, we had one from Texas and a few from Oklahoma, mainly the Panhandle area, and we’ve had them coming from all over Southwest Kansas. It’s only the sixth annual car show, and it’s still fairly new, so we’re still trying to get the word out.”

In addition to the car show, Turley said Meade Lake is a very family-friendly area, and she encourages everyone to come out this weekend.

“Families are camping everywhere,” she said. “With the $500 cash drawing this year, that’s the first year we’ve done that since I’ve been here. We don’t have as big a registration as Hooker, but we still have a lot of classic cars that come out. The last several years, we’ve had a guy bring out his homemade bike, and we bring out the barrel train and let the kids ride around in the barrel train. We have a lot of family fun, maybe not as much as OK Kids Day, but still a lot of family fun.”

Food will also be available at the event. For more information, contact the Meade Lake park office at 620-873-2572.