This weekend, the Crossroads Car Club will host its annual car show during Celebrate Reed City weekend.

The show will benefit the Reed City Veterans Memorial Park project, which is in its sixth year of fundraising. Organizer Russ Nehmer said there has been strong interest in the show and in helping fund the park.

“This year we’ve had 136 sponsors and several thousand dollars in great raffle prizes that were donated,” Nehmer said. “We’ve had over $10,000 in monetary donations already. So many people are starting to get behind it.”

Over the last five years, Nehmer has raised more than $70,000 for the park. Recently, the project became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and launched its own website to educate people about the park’s mission and allow online donations.

Phase 1 of the project includes a 100-foot flagpole that will be installed along the Purple Heart Trail near the intersection of U.S. 10 and Old U.S. 131.

“Once we start Phase 1 and put up the flag, we’re going to start doing brick pavers around the flag,” Nehmer said. “People can put their family name or the name of someone who passed away who was a veteran, or someone who is still serving. They don’t necessarily have to be from the area to put their name on a brick.”

The park’s pathway, which is not yet finalized, will resemble a ribbon to honor those who served. Once the flag and pavers are in place, Nehmer said he will be collaborating with an ArtPrize artist to plant a symbolic oak tree.

“There was a guy at ArtPrize who was making trees, and an oak tree is something that has a good foundation and strong roots,” Nehmer said. “I talked to him about this whole plan and that I wanted to get one of his trees and sell dog tags so people could put a name on a dog tag. Then it would turn into a chime tree.”

Nehmer said the project is nearing completion of its architectural plans. No groundbreaking date has been set.

The car show is a major fundraising event for the park. Last year, the show raised more than $15,000.

For more information on the park and the car show, visit https://www.reedcityveterans.org/.