Lovers of old Chevys can’t have a car show, but they can do some good

Only in their dreams did members of the Redwood Empire Classic Chevy Club host a car show this year.

The global pandemic utterly wrecked the club’s plans for its annual May sweet-old-car love fest at Stoke Ranch, just north of Santa Rosa.

On Wednesday, the connoisseurs of Tri-Fives — Chevrolets built in 1955, 1956 and 1957 — switched gears to Plan B.

A band of Classic Chevy Club members met up in the parking lot of the Raley’s supermarket on Fulton Road, then they traveled by caravan to the Redwood Empire Food Bank off Airport Boulevard.

They’d earlier alerted officials of the REFB, currently going to heroic efforts to address hunger intensified by fallout of the pandemic, that they would parade over to deliver a little something.

It was a check, for $1,500. With that much money, the food bank can purchase and distribute a great deal of food.

Members of the Chevy Club had agreed that amid the widespread financial suffering brought by the COVID-19 crisis, they could do no better than to donate proceeds of their 2019 car show to the cause of food security.

The club brings in dollars for community philanthropy primarily through the entry fees it charges to participants in what they call Fred’s All-American Old Car Day. In a typical year, the show attracts hundreds of classic cars to Stoke’s landmark ranch and private automotive museum on Old Redwood Highway.

With the pandemic is full force, there was no way the car show could happen this May. So the Chevy enthusiasts fired up their beauties and took a drive that will help to assure that a good many of their neighbors will continue to have food on the table.