PORTLAND, Ore. — The owners of Beaches in Vancouver are passing the torch on a nearly three decade-long tradition — something that has brought thousands of people together through the power of a good cause and a love of classic cars.
On Wednesday, the owners hosted the final Beaches Summertime Cruisin' event at Portland International Raceway, drawing a large crowd of car enthusiasts for the 29th year.
"As you can tell, we get a fairly good turnout," said Mark Matthias, the owner of the waterfront restaurant. "This is all for charity. It started at the restaurant. We overgrew the neighborhood and they asked us to leave. We went to Pearson Air Museum, outgrew that, and then we came down to Portland International Raceway ... It's just been a really cool ride."
Attendees whole-heartedly agreed and some said they come back year after year to celebrate with friends.
"We've been coming for nearly 25 years," said Jeff Miller. "We all have cars, and we enjoy cars, we enjoy people."
Miller, Dave Howard and Rodger Reinmuth have been friends since their days at Columbia River High School. They've made this event a summertime tradition. They made note of Wednesday's especially large crowds.
"I had to park way over there by the racetrack," Reinmuth said. "It's never been that full, ever."
Many see the reason for the huge turnout as a bittersweet one. As warm weather comes to an end, so too does this era. Both owners of Beaches are retiring, so this was their last classic car event before passing the torch.
"It's pretty emotional at times," Matthias said. "They are friends. We have a lot of friends in this car community, and so that has been fun and they are here because they know we do it for charity, but they're also here to have a good time. It's just a nice social night in the middle of the week."
Although Matthias may have been the driving force over the decades, he said it's only been possible through partnership.
"It's really a team effort. We kind of get a lot of the credit for this, but boy, it took a whole lot of people to be able to do these things," he said.
New organizers are already lined up and plan to host the car show next summer, beginning in June.
