Pitt State’s Health, Human Performance, and Recreation (HHPR) club and department put on the third annual Car-Rilla Fest Aug. 30. The event’s purpose is to raise money for the HHPR scholarship through a car show, open for anybody in the community to participate in. The scholarship goes to students in the HHPR program, which includes fields in exercise science, physical education, rec and sports management, therapeutic rec, and hospitality management.
Hallacy Miller, recruitment chair of the HHPR club, explains how the event’s fundraising works.
“We raised money through car registration. We also sold t-shirts at the event, and then if anyone wanted to donate, we had a few people who did,” Miller said.
This year, 41 people registered to show their car, and there was a variety of vehicles displayed.
Nishanna Carpenter, a participant showing a grey Dodge Charger, says the event is important for the community to know about because of the purpose behind it.
“For anyone who’s going to get a benefit out it, I mean for the money that’s raised, I think that’s awesome,” she said.
Carpenter also explains that this year is her first year participating in the event. She’s not the only new participant either.
Dennis Hurt, another Pittsburg community member participating in the show, says he’s seen the event happen every year but was never able to participate. This year he finally could.
“My favorite part [about the car] is probably that I’ve owned it since high school, and done almost all the work myself on it,” Hurt explained. “Everything’s been upgraded.”
Hurt has had his 1970 Chevrolet Impala for 55 years and says he’s proud to show off all the work he’s put into it.
At the end of the event, the top two cars in every category are given awards. The categories include trucks, cars, and motorcycles. This year, the event raised almost $1700 in total.
Miller explains that this was her first year helping organize Car-Rilla Fest, and that there was a lot of work put in behind the scenes from her and the other members of HHPR.
“I worked a lot with the volunteers, so I kind of created a list of their duties, whether they’re supposed to help people find their parking spots, or hand out t-shirts, or help with registration,” she explains. “We all had to go out and find sponsors for the event too.”
Miller shares specifically what her role was when it came to preparing for the event.
“I also worked with promotion of the event, like social media promotion, sharing it around campus and stuff like that.”
Overall, Miller says she hopes that students and community members of Pittsburg take away the importance of HHPR.
“I hope that they had a better awareness of what Pitt State HHPR really is. We kind of call our major like a discovery major,” she said. “People don’t always realize that you really can work in recreation and sport or physical education. I hope that people had a better understanding of that and share the awareness.”
