History

UPDATE:


The club is continuing to grow with new members each year. Circumstances change for some members and their interests involve other areas such as new grandchildren.
We are always pleased when someone expresses an interest in joining the club. When the club started preparing for the 2008 Red Hot Car Show, Chris Peterson took over the responsibilities of the President of the club. He did a great job organizing the different categories of running the car show and appointing committees to handle the parking, registration, judging and fund raising.
The members stepped up and worked to prepare for the show and had a very successful day with beautiful weather and around 400 cars.
During 2010, Chris continues to lead the club with Jim Rigney as his assistant.
Cheryl Brown was voted in as secretary/treasurer for 2010. She also created the Web Page for the club and updates that. It is a very neat website. Information regarding membership is listed along with pictures from events attended by the members and stories regarding the history of the club
Committees will again be appointed to organize the 2010 Red Hot Car Show.
At present time, there are 36 paid family memberships.



By Sid & Judy DeVries    The Beginning....

We are looking forward to another year and are always open for suggestions for road trips and places to visit. Any suggestions that anyone has would be appreciated.
After doing the Red Hot Car Shows and the Round Barn Cruise-In car shows in Rochester for several years, we placed a sheet for people to sign-up if they were interested in starting a local car club.The first meeting was January 26, 1998. We had 26 in attendance. It was decided to charge $12.00 a year for membership dues, to cover the cost of printing and mailing a monthly Newsletter. Sid was appointed President and Judy as secretary and treasurer. (In 2004, Dee McKim was elected Treasurer.)We have always included all models of cars and trucks in the membership of the club. We have never wanted to limit membership by having an exclusive membership. We have had people who did not have a car to show belong to the club because of their interest in this hobby.We discussed what to call the club. After several suggestions, we decided to vote on the many names that had been put forth. At the April, 1998 meeting, we voted and called the club, Blacktop Cruisers. This name was suggested by Rod Howell. Kathie Adams drew the Logo.By May, 1998, we had 33 paid family memberships. Our first outing as a club was to travel to the Lakeview Diner in Warsaw for a Cruise-In on May 15, 1998.The club has held their meetings in several different places. Mama Suzetti’s restaurant was our first regular meeting place. When East of Chicago Pizza opened a restaurant in Rochester, we then moved our meetings there. They were always so accommodating. We then decided to have carry-in meals in the homes of those who volunteered. Those were Jerry & Cheryl Brown, Richard & Jerilyn Peterson, John and Barb Hunter, Earl Gaerte and Sid & Judy DeVries.Through the years, we have taken several road trips. Auburn-Cord-Dusenberg Museums; A chartered Bus trip to the Gilmore Museum in Michigan; The Corvette Museum in Fort Wayne; A Sunday Cruise to Roscoe’s Restaurant and Door Prairie Museum; The Studebaker Museum; A Farm and Car Museum in New Haven; and a Cruise to Somerset, KY for a weekend.We also toured several factories: Dean Foods, Camcar Textron, and Logansport Municipal Utilities.We have had a high membership of 65 families. At this time, we have 40 paid family memberships. Dues have been raised to $15.00. At present, we have a rotating leader for the meetings and Ann Powell has volunteered to do the Newsletters. Dee McKim is still the Treasurer.In 2004, the club took over doing the Round Barn Festival Cruise-In from the Chamber of Commerce and this year, 2008, the club will be doing the Red Hot Car Show.We have lost two of our original charter members, Greg Miller and Don Snipes. We have remembered them with Memorial Awards at the Car Shows.The Blacktop Cruisers continue to meet on the 4th Tuesday of the month. In the winter months, we have been meeting at Jarrety’s Place in Rochester.