September’s car show in Garrettsville normally could be seen in Garfield Plaza outside G-Ville Auto’s NAPA store (Peterson family owned & operated). This year’s car show will have a different name and purpose – The Zach Peterson Memorial Car & Bike Show – commemorating a young automotive enthusiast lost to us too soon. The event will be presented at noon in the Nelson Ledges Race Course on SR 305.
The show is being held in honor of co-owner Dan Peterson’s son, Zach, who passed away unexpectedly over a year ago.
“There has been a ton of support,” Peterson told The Weekly Villager on Aug. 13. “We have passed out roughly 7,000 fliers at different car shows and got a huge response from that. We are expecting a huge crowd.”
According to Peterson, his late son Zach developed a love of cars just like his family. He said that Zach was part of a new generation of car enthusiasts he called the Young Guns, the ones that would preserve the legacy of hosting annual car shows throughout the State of Ohio.
The show will include vehicles from the DayStar Ford Dealership of Garrettsville and the Sarchione Chevrolet Dealership of Garrettsville, along with motorcycles from a pair of Harley Davidson stores. In addition to the local business donations, there will also be many cars displayed courtesy of car enthusiasts who attend shows in Ohio every year.
There will also be food at the show – attendees can purchase a barbecue meal, food from Sloppy Dawg, kettle corn and more!! The money raised from food sales, raffle auctions, a 50/50 and t-shirt sales will be distributed to the Zach Peterson Memorial Scholarship fund, a scholarship that will help offset the cost of automotive school for one Garfield and/or Windham graduate.
Peterson said that the show also has received numerous donations from members of the community and local business owners. Although
his son lived only to the age of 24, he left a lasting impression in Garrettsville.
“This was a big shock for the whole community,” he noted. “It was overwhelming when he passed away. There were nearly 3,000 people at his funeral. He was a good guy. He was good to people and had the same personality as pretty much the whole family.”
Peterson said that he has already been in touch with one automotive school in Beachwood and is also searching for another school located in the Youngstown area that the scholarship winners could attend. The amount of each scholarship will be determined by how much money the show raises annually. Students interested in applying must have an affinity for cars or a passion to pursue a career in the automotive industry.
Peterson said that he was inspired to create a scholarship in Zach’s honor a few months after his son passed away. This car show will be held independent of the Garrettsville Area Chamber of Commerce’s summer car shows, and the Petersons appreciate the support they have received from chamber.
Some of the incredible items available for raffle include battery chargers, jumper cables, Ohio State football tickets and a $100 gift certificate courtesy of Bonner Farms.
“This town is phenomenal for when somebody has a crisis,” Peterson said. “I don’t know what to say. Everybody wants to step up and they want to help.”
There will also be activities for children – and kids at heart – at the show. Peterson said the biggest draw will be the debut of a custom-made car that Zach started working on before he passed away. He had been working on a 41 Chevy two-door sedan that is still in the early stages of design.
Peterson said that one of the last things he and Zach did was purchase a vehicle for Zach so he could personally design his own car. To commemorate Zach’s aspirations, it is being designed to the theme of the Star Wars franchise, which was one of Zach’s favorite movies.
“Our next step is to put the body on it,” Peterson said. “There are several pictures we are taking. We are going to have the car and the body on the track just to show how far we have gotten on it. Every year we are going to do it; it is going to take a long time. It takes about four or five years to build a car.We are going to bring it out every year ont he track in stages.”
Peterson and his family have hosted several different car shows over the years but expect to hold one that honors Zach for the next several years to come – honoring Zach and helping future automotive students.
