There will once again be a long line of jeeps traversing through Geauga County on the morning of Oct. 11. The Burton-Middlefield Rotary Club will host the seventh annual Geauga Jeep Invasion beginning at the Mayfield Road Drive-In Theatre on 12100 SR 322 in Chardon at 8 a.m.
“It has been a great tradition,” B-M Rotary Club member Andrew Pleso told The Weekly Villager on Sept. 28. “It is always a good turnout, we always sell out, that is always the biggest thing so by the time we do that we end up raising a good amount of money for the veterans and it is fun. The biggest thing is that it a huge community effort.”
An annual fundraiser for the Veterans of Geauga County, the B-M Rotary Club will welcome 100 jeeps to the Mayfield Road Drive-In Theatre the morning of the 11th The registration fee is $50 per jeep.
Pleso said that only 100 jeeps are allowed to participate because of safety requirements established by the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office. Once all 100 jeeps have assembled at 10 a.m., they will go on a 20-mile drive throughout Geauga County, taking in several of the sights.
The journey will take the participants by the Veterans Memorial across the street from University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center, onto a bike trail that will go under the cover of bridges and through Best Sand, a sand quarry in Chardon.
“They are a great community partner, so they allow us to drive through their sand pit,” noted Pleso, a Sales & Leasing Consultant at Junction Auto in Chardon. “They set up their own track in there for us to drive through and see their operations and their employees love it. They have all kinds of employees that show up with their families, and they are there to wave and see us.”
The jeeps will return to the Mayfield Road Drive-In Theatre at 11 a.m. and the rest of the day will consist of interested residents taking in the sights and attractions of the 100 participating jeeps.
All money raised from the fundraiser will be distributed to the B-M Rotary Club Veteran’s Projects fund, which allows the Club to make sizeable donations to non-profit organizations who support the veterans of Geauga County. The Geauga Jeep Invasion often raises money from the sale of merchandise, local sponsorships, the auctioning off of gift baskets and 50-50 raffles.
According to Pleso, the Club has frequently donated the money to the Geauga County Veteran Food Pantry.
Pleso added that just last year the Geauga Jeep Invasion event raised $15,500. He noted that any money that can be donated to non-profits supporting the often goes a long way.
“If there is a veteran or a Gold Star family or somebody that needs help individually, we can look at that and offer money in that direction,” he said. “If there is an organization such as the Veterans’ Food Pantry that needs it and they always do, we give the majority of the money to them.”
The Geauga Jeep Invasion was originally created by longtime B-M Rotary Club Member and current Geauga County Commissioner Jim Dvorak. Pleso said when he initially joined the Club four years ago, he took over the operations of the event from Dvorak because of his business ties to Junction Family Auto and his existing charitable connections through the Geauga County community.
For Pleso, the fundraiser is not only a testament to the patriotic pride of Geauga County residents but holds a personal meaning to him as the son of a veteran.
“I am an army brat,” he noted. “My Dad spent his entire career in the military so my Dad did 24 years in the army and growing up with that and seeing that level of service that they obviously give to us to everybody in the country and then just being able to give back to them is great, so that is where the motivation comes from.”
Pleso added the charitable contributions of the Geauga Jeep Invasion is not the only exciting element, but the involvement of a variety of jeeps that hail from Southern Ohio and even out-of-state. He said that some jeeps are new models, but others have been recently restored as their original manufacturing date goes back to the days of World War II.
