Chapter enlist youth to judge Annual PBOC Show

The Pontiacs of Idaho held their Third Annual Pontiac, Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and GMC (PBOC) Show in May.  The beneficiary of the show is the Payette River Regional Technical Academy (PR2TA).  PR2TA is a vocational school for high school level students that offers a variety of career related studies.  Most of the sponsorship money we raise is split between different departments at the academy with the Automotive Department being the top recipient.  The Engineering Department also receives a share of the pie for providing five trophy plaques for the show.  We also use the Culinary Department to serve food at the show!  The Pontiacs of Idaho’s goal is to introduce the next generation of potential car enthusiasts to the classic car hobby.

For the last 3 years, the automotive instructor John Lindsay, has recruited automotive students from his class to judge five categories at our car show.  The students are rewarded with shirts and hats for participating in the judging.  The student judges are paired up for each category.  For the first couple of years, I would just have the student judges pick their favorite car in each category.  Surprisingly, the student judges’ picks never let me down!  They seem to enjoy it and you can tell by their picks!  So, this year I changed it up!  Ron Berglund had given me a set of scoring sheets for judging cars which used a point system that outlines what to look for.  I took the forms to John so we could introduce them to his classes along with this year’s categories.

The categories the students judge are Favorite Paint, Favorite Engine Bay, Favorite Interior, Favorite Racecar, and this year I changed it from “Work in Progress” to Favorite Convertible.  What was nice about the score sheets was that you could use part of a score sheet to judge a category and use the whole form for a complete car!  As the PR2TA Judges were finalizing their votes, as luck would have it, the students who were judging Favorite Convertible had a points tie!  The tie was between a 1962 Pontiac Bonneville and a 1954 Buick Skylark.  So, I took all the PR2TA Judges over to the ’62 Bonneville and had them inspect the glovebox.  The glovebox was empty and appeared “dust free.”  Next, the judges and I walked over to the ’54 Skylark and kindly asked the owner if the PR2TA Judges could inspect his glovebox.  The owner agreed and opened his glovebox and pulled out (what looked like) the original 1954 Buick Skylark Owner’s Manual!  One of the PR2TA Judges exclaimed, “That’s extra points!”  The tie was broken!  I told the owner, “Don’t go anywhere!”

After the PR2TA Judges had given me all their winners, I asked them how they like the points system since there were a couple returning judges from last year.  They all agreed that the point system was better than just trying to pick their favorite.  I believe the point system gave them a way to measure what they were looking at.  The PR2TA Judges had a blast and I’m sure we’ll have some experienced judges returning next year!  I hope the Pontiacs of Idaho sparked an interest in these young adults to maybe restore their own Classic Car someday!

Rick Mihm, Car Show Chairman

Click on the photo below to watch a short video of the event........

Below: Chapter members presenting donation check to the Payette River Regional Technical Academy