Verona Classic Car Show exceeds expectations

Jeff Green | Aug 10, 2016

Ed Asselstine ran the Verona Car Show for 20 years, as part of the Cattail Festival. Two years ago he started looking around for someone to replace him at the helm because he was finding it to be too much of a burden.

He approached John and Carol Nizman from Last Chance Auto Restore in Yarker to see if they would like to take over.

“Ed thought that because we are in the restoration business for vintage vehicles we would have the right kind of connections to run a car show and it would be a good fit for our business. At first we said no, because we were too busy, but when he came to us again last fall he said that he was going to close the show if no one took over,” said a tired John Nizman from his shop early this week.

What the Nizmans found out shortly after was that the Cattail Festival was going to close and if the car show ended as well, the Verona Community Association (VCA) would lose its major fundraiser of the year.

The VCA runs the Christmas For Kids Program in Verona and the surrounding region, Music in the Park and a number of other programs. Without a major fund raising event each summer, some of that programming might have to cease.

“We decided that it was an opportunity to make the car show a premier event for the region and it could keep the VCA in full operation if successful,” he said.

Although there have been some bumps in the road in the transition from a weekend music and community festival to a single-themed one-day car show, the scale of the resulting event was beyond what anyone ever expected.

The show had a theme, Las Vegas, and in order to entice owners of vintage cars to attend the festival, the Nizmans arranged for a trip to Las Vegas to be a draw prize for those who registered for the show. A second prize of a $3,500 tool kit added to the appeal.

As the day of the show drew near, John Nizman said that he was getting a feeling that attendance would be better than originally anticipated.

“I went to Chet Babcock [one of the VCA board members] and asked him to cut the grass in an extra field near the Lions Hall just in case we needed more space. Thank goodness we did that, because the grounds were full and we used all the parking we had available to us.”

In the end, 264 classic cars registered for the show, plus there were another 20, who did not want to enter the draws and just donated money instead of registering.

There was a wide variety of cars and at least of few of them were rare enough to be valued over $200,000. Cars came from local enthusiasts as well as from Peterborough, Trenton, Belleville, Brockville and beyond.

About 500 people came to see the cars and all told close to a 1,000 people were milling about the site, listening to Elvis Tribute Artist Berry Chumley from Belleville, enjoying the sunny weather, food from the canteen, and vendors’ displays of local crafts and automotive accessories - in short, generally having a good time.

“It was phenomenal,” Nizman said. “People came from the local community and there were others who came from outside the region. Hopefully the local businesses saw an increase in traffic.”

The trip to Las Vegas went to a couple from Belleville.

“They said they had missed a show last week, and only decided to come to Verona the day before the show. They didn't even know about the draw for the Vegas trip,” he said.

The winner of the toolkit, which is a 2nd edition Mustang Toolkit and box, happens to own a Mustang Shelby GT.

With the success of the event, the Verona Community Association is committed to continuing its regular programming for another year.

As far as next year is concerned, the car show faces the same obstacles that the Cattail Festival faced. There is always a need for volunteers in advance of an event to seek out sponsors and do other work, and in the run-up to the event there is a need for time commitments at the site and in the community.

“I'm hoping that with the success this year, people will step up to help carry the ball for next year and beyond,” said John Nizman. “I think we've shown that this can work, and the classic car owners seem to love it. Hopefully people will step forward to make sure it happens again.”