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By RACHEL C. DOVE

Staff Writer

WILLIAMSON - This Saturday, June 2, the streets of Williamson will be filled with antique cars and chromed-out motorcycles that will be competing in the Annual Tug Valley Shriners Car and Motorcycle Show, the largest fundraiser of the year for the local Tug Valley chapter.

Registration is slated to begin that morning at 9 a.m. and will conclude at noon. Judging will begin at approximately 1 p.m. and trophies will be awarded at 3 p.m. The cost is $15 per entry, with all proceeds being used to provide transportation for local children who require the services of the Shriner’s Hospitals in Lexington, Ky., and in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Concessions will also be sold, along with the coveted Shrine Club Car and Motorcycle Show t-shirts that are always a hot commodity for those attending the event. An auction will be held prior to the presentation of the trophies that will feature a wide variety of items that have been donated by area merchants.

Grant Preece, President of the Tug Valley Chapter of the Shriners, told the Daily News that three fellow Shriner’s, Red Daniels, Franklin Cisco and Eugene Gibbs drove a trailer filled with pop tabs to the Shriner’s Hospital in Lexington on Tuesday that was estimated to weigh one ton. The pop tabs are collected and brought to the hospital where they are then exchanged for items such as toys, games and computers to benefit the children who are patients at their facility. The tabs transported on Tuesday were the combined efforts of the Tug Valley Chapter and the Stone, Ky., Chapter of the Shriners.

“Our chapter services quite a few children each year,” said Preece. “We have dedicated shrine members who drive the van back and forth to the Lexington and Cincinnati hospitals for families that can’t afford the trip or who do not have reliable transportation.

“Some of these kids have to go for visits once or twice a week for an extended period of time and wouldn’t be able to make these trips if we didn’t provide free transportation. That’s why we encourage everyone to come out on Saturday and support this event that helps raise money for us to be able to continue to offer these services.”

Preece stated that should the weather not cooperate on Saturday and it would happen to rain, the secondary date for the car show will be June 16.

For more information on this worthwhile event, you may contact Benny Sawyer at 304-475-3556, Franklin Cisco at 304-235-5313 or Grant Preece at 304-235-0320.