Annual car show in Shenandoah draws a crowd

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SHENANDOAH — “Folks, let me tell you something. We got our problems here in these little small towns, but we come together as a community to be able to have things like this, and the people here understand that,” said Mark Stroupe, one of the organizers of the 28th Shenandoah Car Show, which was held Saturday.  

For a small town in a rural area, many businesses and people came together to make the Shenandoah Memorial Festival Car, Truck and Tractor Show a success. People came out to look at the Mustangs, Beetles and antique cars, with 111 on display.

Attendees also saw the mountains in the background as they walked up and down the rows of cars at the event, held in the parking lot of KVK Precision Specialties on Quincy Avenue.

Visitors to the show also got to eat some snacks offered by the Page County Panthers cheer team, try out the vendors on site, and even watch the Calvacade of Cars, a parade held in the early evening. The annual venture was supported by numerous local vendors and the town of Shenandoah, said Andy Comer, one of the event organizers.

The car show is held every year on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. It’s a way to honor Donnie Lee Campbell, who began the event over a quarter century ago and died in 2020.

“Donny was a racing legend here in the Valley,” Comer said. “He’s really well known.”

Stroupe grew up on the same street as Campbell and remembers when Donny built his race engines.

“My mom would go, ‘There’s that Campbell boy getting ready to work on that race car engine. Gonna shake the stuff out of my kitchen windows, and the whatnots would jump around in the kitchen,” he said.

Stroupe runs his own car show in Luray. The Mt. Carmel Christian Academy show, which will be on Sept. 20, is now in its 17th year. That car show raises thousands of dollars every year for the school.

Stroupe’s car show has never had rain. Comer’s car show has been rained out only once.

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