By Ashley McCarty-
Adams County Ohio Stands United and Brown County Riders Against Cancer are proud to present the First Annual Car and Bike Show Family Fun Day on Oct. 3 at the Adams County Fairgrounds.
Adams County Ohio Stands United is a Second Amendment group with over 1900 members collectively.
“We’re a Second Amendment group that is basically here for the community. We’re not a militia, we’re not politically affiliated with any group, it’s just a bunch of community members that believe in our constitutional rights and our Second Amendment, because our Second Amendment protects the rest of them. So, that’s kind of how we got started. We were tired of seeing our constitution being walked all over, and our way of building it is working with the community, try to do things for the community and with the community,” said founding member Tony Hawes.
The event was spearheaded by Sally Sowers of Brown County Riders Against Cancer.
“[This event is] to get people in our community back out and get them together, and for us all to be one; to work for the same goals as everyone else, just to be friendly, and to get back to the basic life of neighbors helping neighbors. That’s kind of what we aim for. It’s trying to get everyone together. People just don’t tend to want to help one another anymore, they kind of take care of themselves, but then when it comes to someone needing help, you know, who’s there? People need to be there for each other, that’s the way God intended for it to be, so that’s what we try to do,” said Sowers.
The event will start off with a parade at 11:30 a.m., and will feature a car and bike show, a plethora of door prizes, as well as raffles, of which someone could potentially win an AR-15.
“Car, bike, tractor, anything that you want to show, you’re more than welcome to come. The gun raffle, we actually have an AR-15, it’s $5 each or five tickets for $20. The winner, as long as you’re 21 and meet the standards of being able to do the proper paperwork, it’s your weapon,” said Hawes.
There will also be a battle of the bands, bike games, and an abundance of other activities. In the Junior Fair pavilion, gospel music will be provided.
According to Sowers, all proceeds will go back to the community.
“We’ve helped so many people. I have boards and boards of people that we have helped; we have pictures of everyone. Somebody could call me tomorrow and say, you know, I’m fighting cancer, I don’t have the funding to make my house payment. We make that for them. If they need Ensure, we’ve had Adams County Cancer Center call us needing Ensure for this person, or a wheelchair ramp — that’s where we come in. We jump in and get it done,” said Sowers.
Sowers has even put together rides to raise funds for certain individuals if their monetary needs were more than they could provide.
“We’ll throw rides for them because we make more money for them that way, but what we have in the bank, we always end up helping people with gas, cellphone bills, car payments, house payments. That’s where the funding goes to,” said Sowers.
Participants to the event can also support vendors, of which there will be 30 varied, and four food vendors. Two food vendors will provide traditional fair food, while two will provide sweeter fair staples.
“It’s really rewarding just to see the amount of support, because that alone gives you more ambition to want to do more. I enjoy being around these fine people, their group has really just opened my eyes to the amount of love that the community has. I’m just thankful. It’s not just a me thing, this is a team. We might be Adams County Ohio Stands United, they might be Brown County Riders Against Cancer, but we’re all still one,” said Hawes.
Hawes stands by his creed of togetherness. At their last Adams County Ohio Stands United meeting, Hawes preached that sense of unity.
“We’re saying I’m a Democrat, I’m a Republican, and all this — you’re segregating yourself from everyone else. If you can say, hey, I’m an American. We’re all Americans, so now we’re all in a big pot together. Whether we disagree or agree, we agree on a lot more things than we disagree on. So, we can shove all those little things under the rug that we disagree on, and do something great for each other. These guys, [Sally and Kenny Duffey], they deserve all the credit,” said Hawes.
Sowers said she was overwhelmed by the response to this event.
“I mean, it’s been from a neighbor to politicians that have really given us the go-ahead for this, and it’s been amazing. It’s absolutely been amazing,” said Sowers.
Hawes and Sowers invite everyone to come out and enjoy this family fun day.
The scheduled list of events, as per the flyer, state that car and bike sign-ins are from 10 a.m.- 2 p.m, with judging at 4 p.m.; trophies awarded at 6 p.m. The first band will play at noon. For more information, Hawes can be contacted at (740) 405-2126.
