The First Annual AVID Car Show

AVID held its first car show on Sunday, Nov. 28. Over 273 cars were showcased. The success of this event exceeded expectations. AVID was able to raise 1,100 dollars,  which was substantially more than they had anticipated. Games and raffles were held with ninth-grader Amrie Reveles as the Master of Ceremonies (MC) who also created the event. Joseph Velasco, AVID Coordinator and AVID 10 teacher, and AVID 9 counselor Francisco Ramos coordinated the event. 

Reveles says “I chose a car show just because I grew up with a bunch of car shows and I grew up in that community. I always used to see fundraisers and car shows so I thought, ‘hey let’s do that.’ Then we raised around 1,000 dollars. The purpose of this was to raise money for our program so that our students are able to go see colleges in different towns, cities, or different states.” 

Velasco says the event was intended to fundraise but found that community also stemmed from it. “You know, the cool thing about it was that I hadn’t thought about it until the day it was happening or what a great community event it was. It really felt like this wholesome event.”

Ramos says this event vastly exceeded his expectations. “We had…about 40 cars, we had 10 vendors, a couple of food vendors and Food Connection was there serving up tacos and burritos. It was just a great atmosphere. It just went so smoothly and there were amazing cars, amazing people. It just went well.” 

Velasco also remarked on how big of a success the event was, especially for AVID’s first-ever car show. “If we made $600-700 I’d be stoked. We ended up making $1,300. But more importantly we had over 200 people who just showed up on their own to just check it out.” He says a lot of the community came out to support the event, there were tons of people who walked by and wanted to see what was going on. “This is a really wholesome, sweet community event that I think can definitely grow bigger.” 

This event brought the community together and sparked a ton of joy. One of Velasco’s highlights was the food truck and seeing the community all together. “The food truck was awesome. Here’s the deal about a food truck. I think wherever you have a food truck or food at any event, it turns into a party. It turns into something fun. Having the vendors there selling really different things from hoodies and t-shirts to makeup, to blankets, to homemade candles, it just felt like a party. It went so smooth. At one point, Mr Ramos and I had nothing to do because all the students were running everything.” 

Reveles’s highlight was the car contest and judging. “The highlights were saying the awards because I had to go around and talk to the other judges and decide which car was best. Then the awards were also a highlight. I’m kind of proud of myself ‘cause I did it all by myself. I barely had anyone helping me. But I liked it. It was fun.” Ramos liked the prizes as well as the cars themselves, his personal highlight. “I think some of the cars themselves were highlights of the event. There were some beautiful cars out there. The details, and some of them were amazing. Amrie’s dad created prizes for the contest. We had different categories for the cars and the winner each got a custom hand paint (job), (an) airbrushed, folding medal chair and…mini tool boxes.”