The Panhandle Council of Car Clubs hosted their 39th annual Make-A-Wish Car Show over the weekend at the Amarillo Civic Center.

The event featured over 300 cars, motorcycles, tractors, ATV’s and more, with year models ranging from 1917 to 2023. In addition to the show vehicles, the event included more than 40 vendors, a live auction and a model car competition. Attendees were able to walk among the vehicles and vote for the “best of show.”

Sharon Walker, who has entered vehicles in the show for the past five years and had attended the event years prior to entering, spoke about why she comes back each year.

“Every year I love seeing the beautiful cars and all the work that goes into them, and the fact that it benefits Make-A-Wish.” Walker said. “This is a family event, this is something I see generations of families at, and parents bring their little kids … Who knows one of those kids could grow up to engineer one the new vehicles, or create a new paintjob or take up pin striping, or bring their kids down the road, the possibilities are endless.”

This year’s event had a goal to reach at least $60,000. According to Barry Henson, chairman for the Make-A-Wish Car Show, in 2023 the event raised over $74,000, and they were hopeful to surpass that. As of Monday, Henson said they still did not know the total amount raised through the event as many of the donations are still being processed. But Henson said he has hope that they will reach their goal.

Supporting Make-A-Wish in the Texas Panhandle

Make-A-Wish director of corporate and community philanthropy, Heather Bosillo, spoke about how the annual Car Show has directly impacted the Make-A-Wish children throughout the Panhandle.

“Since this car show has began they have raised over $1.2 million for Make-A-Wish which has helped us to grant over 950 wishes in the panhandle,” Bosillo said.

According to Make-A-Wish, there are currently 60 children in the Panhandle area waiting to receive their wish. Bosillo said the funds raised from the car show will directly contribute to those wishes.

“Like many other nonprofits throughout the COVID-19 pandemic we are affected, and Make-A-Wish was affected uniquely, we had a hard time raising funds but in addition to that our mission kind of came to a halt dealing with medically fragile children and with a lot of their wishes involving leaving their homes we had to take a pause on granting wishes which has caused a backlog and now we have kids waiting for us to grant their wish,” Bosillo said.

Bosillo said the Car Show not only allows the non-profit to raise funds to help grant wishes but it has also helped to connect the organization with individuals seeking their Make-A-Wish services and connect with potential volunteers.

“Another thing that really affected us following the pandemic is our total number of volunteers we went from 800 to less than 300, and being here today is helping us to rebuild a little bit,” Bosillo added.

For more information or to volunteer with Make-A-Wish, visit them online at https://wish.org/ntx

For more information about the Car Show follow the Panhandle Council of Car Clubs of Facebook.