Gearheads flocked to the Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis Saturday, June 21, for the first Lewis County Autism Coalition (LCAC) Car and BMX show.
The event was organized in partnership with Centralia’s Cornerstone Center for Development.
Nearly 150 cars were registered for the show, along with close to 250 BMX bikes, with all proceeds going toward the LCAC. Along with the cars and bikes, the show included food trucks and vendors, live music and raffles, including a free raffle for kids to win a restored 1980s Schwinn BMX bike.
“We had a massive turnout. For a year one show, this is a really good turnout,” Cornerstone co-founder Nick Robbins said.
Robbins also serves on the LCAC board of directors alongside the board’s Executive Director Michelle Whitlow, who used to work at Cornerstone when it first opened in July 2023.
“Nick and I were sitting there talking one day, and he mentioned, ‘I want to have a car show,’ and I said, ‘You know what you should do? Have a car show and give me all the money,” Whitlow said.
From there, planning began. Veterans Memorial Museum Executive Director Chip Duncan, who hosts multiple car shows in the fields surrounding the museum, contacted Robbins and Whitlow to offer them the space free of charge.
Robbins added he decided to make it a combination car and BMX bike show as while there are BMX shows in Portland and Seattle, there are none in this region for BMX riders — including himself — to attend.
He also thanked sponsors who helped with the event, including D9 Farms Hay & Grain in Ethel, Alderson’s Awards West Printwares in Centralia and B Side Bikes Inc. of Albany, Oregon.
Whitlow said one of the goals in raising money is to get the LCAC reintroduced back into the community and to get the services it offers back to pre-COVID-19 levels.
Additionally, funds will also go toward purchasing medical and therapy equipment for children on Medicaid with autism or other developmental disabilities that insurance companies won’t cover.
“Insurance does not pay for things like AACs, which are augmented communication devices, or weighted vests. Things like that, Medicaid does not pay for that,” Whitlow said. “Those things will be available through Cornerstone with some of this funding.”
Whitlow is also looking to get a physical space for the LCAC to not only act as an office but as a meeting point for community coalition meetings, parent support and education groups and more.
For those who missed Saturday’s car show but would still like to donate to LCAC, visit https://www.lcautism.org/ and click on the support tab.
As for the vehicles, waxed paint and polished chrome glistened in the sun on Saturday as attendees went through the show throughout the morning and early afternoon.
One Classic Cadillac
The first car that caught The Chronicle’s eye was a rare one — a restored 1938 Cadillac limousine owned by Jim and Linda Knee, of Chehalis.
“It still has the original engine in it, which is a flathead V-8 with 84,000 miles on it,” Linda said. “It came out of Tacoma from a gentleman who had passed away and had about 20 Cadillacs.”
Referred to affectionately as “The Lady,” they bought the Cadillac to pair with a modified 1956 Ford F-100 pick up truck called “The Cowboy,” which Jim has owned for about 50 years.
“It’s The Cowboy, and we needed to find The Lady. We decided to look in the ‘30s because we like the ‘30s, and this one popped up,” Linda said.
Incidentally, the classic western comedy “The Cowboy and the Lady” directed by H.C. Potter was released in the same year the Cadillac was produced — 1938.
The Lady needed some restoration, though, when the Knees purchased it in 2020.
“The first time we had actually taken it out was last fall. There were a lot of things we had to do mechanically,” Jim said. “I won’t get into it, but let's just say it was a lack of maintenance. Brakes and oil leaks, things like that.”
Brand new upholstery and whitewall tires completed The Lady’s restoration, and now they are ready to keep showing it.
Though they didn’t bring The Cowboy along on Saturday, they plan to show them together this summer at other car shows as The Cowboy won best in show at last year’s Chehalis Fest car show.
A championship-winning bike and a deluxe bus
Originally from DeMotte, Indiana, Shawn Tilev, of Seattle, grew up racing BMX bikes throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, and in 1983 he won the Indiana State BMX Championship in the 15-year-old novice class riding a 1981 Redline Proline II BMX bike.
Shortly after becoming the state champion, he got signed by a different bike company — Tahoe Racing — and sold the Redline to his girlfriend’s younger brother.
“My Tahoe got ripped off in college, so I said, ‘I need my frame and fork back.’ So I bought it back from him and built it exactly the way I raced it, except I didn’t race with these pedals,” Tilev said.
He’s glad he was able to buy it back and still has the bike 40 years later.
“It’s a big part of my childhood, and it was the biggest part of keeping me out of trouble,” said Tilev. “Racing every weekend, racing indoors in the winter, outdoors in the summer.”
Tilev still rides today, although the bikes he rides are a bit bigger. Parked behind his Redline was his 1958 Volkswagen 23 window deluxe bus which he purchased last year.
The bus was mostly restored, though Tilev did have to do some work on it.
“I put in new custom carpets, it didn’t have to correct roll-back canvas top, so I got the correct canvas, and just a tiny bit of paint work,” he added.
A regular attendee of the BMX shows in Seattle, Tilev also said he was looking forward to seeing how the inaugural show went in Chehalis.
“I didn’t know what to expect, for a first annual. It’s an amazing turnout,” Tilev said.
