Le Barons Car Club revved up to back in public

By Justin Seward - Lethbridge Herald on July 5, 2022.

Herald photo by Al Beeber The Le Barons Car Club, which held a car show on Canada Day in Galt Gardens, is excited to be back in the public eye.

The Le Barons Car Club is excited to be back in the public eye after a couple years of being limited to what it could do because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
So far now this year the car club has been able to host its drag races at the Lethbridge airport a couple of weeks ago and a Canada Day car show on Friday at Galt Gardens. At the end of the month the club will be at the air show.
“We love to get together,” said Bert Meyering, Le Barons past president.
“We’ve been invited to the air show in the end of July. We’re just a bunch of old guys looking to make some money because everything we do we try to put back in the community and we like to support a good cause like the food bank – so we do that.”
Friday’s car show proceeds went to the Interfaith food bank, while at other events such as the drag races, funds will be donated to local high schools. A scholarship was also created at Lethbridge College.
Le Barons members talk about things they believe are affiliated with their car club.
“Like the money we donate to the high schools, that’s money for programs in automotives,” said Mevering.
“The college, the same thing. We want to get young people enthusiastic about changing oil, being a mechanic, mechanically inclined. We have a whole generation that is overwhelmed by cars and they still come out to look at cars, they still love cars. But we like to feed that enthusiasm.”
Mevering said a lot of people are staying close to home when asked about high gas prices in 2022.
“Most of the guys here probably could afford the gas that they put in their vehicle,” he said.
“But I see with my grandson, gas is a big cost and I’m one of the club members that’s talking about taking a classic and throwing an electric engine in it.”
“Travelling is a big cost and that’s probably why we’re doing three functions this year in Lethbridge.”
Le Barons members get together at Nikka Yuko Japanese Gardens on Wednesday nights, on the first Tuesday of every month at a members’ house and have a cars and coffee event on Saturday mornings.
The number of members of 40 has been holding steady for a few years and there is room for more.
“We need a club member who’s going to be active because there’s volunteer work to do”, said Meyering.
“You put on a drag race and it’s all volunteers, you put on the car show and it’s all volunteers. We do hand a lot of work off to the food bank. They are doing the 50/50 draw for us, but they receive 100 per cent of the proceeds.”