HURRICANE — The Hurricane Rotary Easter Car Show may have been held over a month ago, but the charitable benefits from the show are providing long-lasting, positive results.
“In terms of fundraising and cars and crowd, that was the biggest show we ever had,” Wil DuCrest, president of Hurricane Valley Rotary Club, told St. George News. “We had around 330 cars that registered for the show, and we estimated the attendance at around 9,000 for that day. It was a really good day for Rotary and for the community.”
DuCrest said that many community members think Rotary is just a car show club, but he said the reality is that Rotary is one of the biggest and highest rated charities in the world.
“Every dollar that we raise goes back into the community and back into international programs that help a lot of people,” he said. “We’re really proud of that.”
Proceeds from fundraising at the car show – which DuCrest said totaled approximately $40,000 considering sponsors, entries and auction items – go to international and community organizations. Of these organizations, DuCrest mentioned one particular humanitarian project that is near and dear to his heart.
The Sunshine Home in Haiti is a home for 11 orphan children and a family that takes care of them. DuCrest said his wife and one of her good friends founded the home and have helped operate it for the last 16 months.
Rotary donated $10,000 of car show money to kickstart a global grant that will help The Sunshine Home buy its own land for its own facility.
“Actually, it’s because of my service in Haiti that I became a Rotarian,” DuCrest said, referring to time he spent in 2017 helping build houses in Haiti and working on other service projects.
“When I got back home, I was invited by a Rotarian to go to a lunch with the club,” he said. “I went and I learned about it, and I’ve been a part of it ever since. I felt the need to serve that they have, and it’s a really great feeling.”
Locally, the Rotary Club donated $4,500 to Hurricane’s Boy Scouts troop. After The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints parted ways with Boy Scouts of America, DuCrest said a huge void was opened up in the community.
Since then, the local scout troop grew from six or seven scouts to a membership of over 30 scouts. DuCrest said seven or eight of them per year become Eagle Scouts.
“Our troop has some really amazing leaders, and the kids are all really into scouting,” he said. “We bought them an enclosed trailer that they can use for camping and for their outings. Scouts do a lot of service projects as well, and the trailer has tools that can help them for those projects.”
The Rotary Club also donated $1,000 to the Hurricane High School mountain biking team, the Flying Monkeys.
“They have grown immensely,” DuCrest said. “They’ve got over 80 kids on the team now. A number of our Rotarians have kids on the team. That’s one of the reasons people become Rotarians, to give help to projects and people they’re passionate about.”
An additional donation of $5,000 to the high school will help with scholarships for seniors and other qualified students.
The city of Hurricane also received $2,000 for new backstops and baseball fields, and DuCrest said Rotary has done service projects at Switchpoint since the car show and donated money to Tans Treats, the Hurricane Food Bank and Washington County Search and Rescue.
“And we’ve still got some funds. We haven’t given all the car show money away yet,” he said.
The Hurricane Valley Rotary Club holds a luncheon every Monday at noon at the Community Center. DuCrest said all are welcome, and he encouraged community members to become involved in Rotary’s service projects.
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