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The Holland Ruritan Club is ready for two weekends of celebration as the group prepares to celebrate its 95th year of service to the community.

First up is its fifth annual Custom Car, Truck and Motorcycle Show set for 8 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, May 13, at Holland Village Ball Field 3, 6720 Ruritan Blvd. 

Then the next weekend, its the 95th annual Founder’s Day Ruritan Celebration from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, May 20, at the same location. The Founders Day parade begins at 11 a.m.

Ahead of both events, Holland Ruritan Club President/Car Show Co-Chair Curtiss Johnson and Club Vice President Calvin Jones shared information about Ruritan National for those unfamiliar with the organization, explaining it originated locally.

“Ruritan National was formed in the village of Holland in 1928,” Johnson said. “Since that period of time, as it spread all over the United States, they established the first club with a mantra that they would be an organization to help those in the community.” 

Johnson said the local club undertakes things such as the car show to raise money for community service projects.

“That’s what we are — a community service organization,” he said. “There’s a large number of things that we support every year. Some of them are cash donations and some of them are more labor intensive than that.”

Being the first charter club of the Ruritan National organization, Holland Ruritan Club is identified as “the mother club,” Jones said, sharing some of the club’s history.

“There’s a tremendous amount of pride to know that you started a national organization in the village of Holland,” Jones said. “Any time you can accomplish something like that, I think it does make you a little proud. And to endure, I mean from 1928, [for] 95 years we’ve endured and grew.”

 

Car show

Onsite registration for the Custom Car, Truck and Motorcycle Show is from 8-10 a.m. Cost for participants is $25, but the event is free for spectators.

“We have judges that come from outside and we have a group of judges that come from the Hampton area that go to a lot of car shows that come in and do that for us,” Johnson said.

He said there will be a deejay, plus they’re offering a free meal to all those who enter a car, truck or motorcycle.

“We have a sponsor that gives us that food to provide that free meal and the athletic league does the cooking at the concession stand and we give them food tickets,” Johnson said. 

Holland Ruritan will award 35 trophies at the car show.

“We have door prizes that we give out and we’ll probably start at 10:30-11 a.m. and every 30 minutes we’ll give out door prizes to the people that enter the vehicle into the car show.”

The club also is selling Holland Ruritan Club Car Show T-shirts. 

Jones said it’s “surprising” where some of the car entries come from.

“Chesapeake, Norfolk – we actually had a group that came from the Outer Banks and last year we had an entry that came from Sterling, Virginia. So it’s all over,” Jones noted.

Johnson added that they have a lot of different types of cars that come to show.

“Each year we have a ‘Best of Show’ and for the last two years, it’s been a group of guys that hang out together in Norfolk and they have a car club there and they’ve been older cars in the ‘30s and one of them was a ‘55 Ford Pickup Truck,” he said. “Just beautiful, completely restored cars, just immaculate. But we allow any model car to enter — it’s not just old cars.”

Johnson said it’s good that they have all different types, calling it “a good cross section.”

 

Founders Day

One weekend of fun isn’t enough as Holland Ruritan Club prepared for its 95th annual Founder’s Day Ruritan Celebration the following weekend.

Parade lineup is from 8:30-10 a.m., with the ppening ceremony at 10:30 a.m. featuring Johnson alongside Ruritan National President Michael Morrison, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, Suffolk City Councilman Timothy Johnson and Holy Neck Christian Church Pastor Michael Halley. 

Vendors, crafters and concessions are available for children from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. For the evening, the members only Founder’s Day Banquet is at the Holland Community House from 6-9:30 p.m.

Johnson said local residents won’t want to miss this year’s parade, noting the Ruritan has “a big event” planned.

“The parade is going to be pretty big because we have sent out invitations to a lot of high school bands,” Johnson said. “There will be other organizations that will have floats in the parade. We’ll have some cars in there. A lot of the dignitaries will be riding in convertibles so they can be seen.”

For more information on vendor registration, call Heather Berlands at 425-931-4783. For more information on the Custom Car, Truck and Motorcycle Show, Founder’s Day Ruritan Celebration or the Holland Ruritan Club, call Curtiss Johnson at 757-621-4961, Calvin Jones at 757-636-2075, or go to www.facebook.com/HollandRuritanclub.