Car show helps raise cancer awareness

Emma Jaggers would find solace that an event in her honor has raised $10,000 for the American Cancer Society, her daughter Susan Mitchell said.

Jaggers succumbed to cancer five years ago at age 67.  But today's 6th Annual Emma Jaggers Memorial Car Show is the Falls City Mustang Club's latest effort to raise money for cancer awareness and prevention.

"My mother would want to keep someone else from going through what she did," said Mitchell.

Club president and Jeffersonville resident Charles Smith said the group has adopted the American Cancer Society as its ongoing cause.                                                      Staff photo by C.E. Branham

"We've kind of made that our project now," he said. "We do walks and stuff like that in May."

The car show will take place across Riverside Drive from Rocky's Italian Grill and Buckhead Mountain Grill. Smith said he expects more than 100 cars and 300 spectators to participate.

While the car's members collectively own 143 Ford Mustangs - about half of which are classic versions of the car produced from mid-1964 through 1973 - they seem to enjoy each other as much as they do their vehicles, Smith said.

"They enjoy the friendship," he said.

"There is a lot of camaraderie in people that have restored their own cars," said Brett Stoy, a 47-year-old New Albany resident who owns four classic Mustangs.

Cars and friendship, Stoy said, are always combined with food.

"We're always eating," he said.

"Whenever we go somewhere, it's like, 'What are we going to eat?" Smith said.

The group hosts car cruises from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. on the third Friday monthly from April through October. Participants gather at Pizza Hut, 2976 Indiana 62 in Jeffersonville.

Mitchell, a club member, said previous commitments will limit her family's involvement in this year's car show.

"This is the first year that the family hasn't really been involved," she said. "But it means a lot to me that I have such good friends."

Jaggers was a Louisville native who lived the last decade of her live in Floyd County. A devout Baptist, she worked in a cigarette factory but never smoked nor drank, her daughter said.

Contact Larry Thomas at lthomas@news-tribune.net

The Sixth Annual Emma Jaggers Memorial Car Show takes place today, October 1, 2005, in Jeffersonville, in the parking lots near Rocky's Italian Grill and Buckhead Mountain Grill. The lots are bordered by the Clark Memorial Bridge, Indiana Avenue, Market Street and Riverside Drive. Registration for car owners is from 9 a.m. until noon and costs $15 per vehicle. The best viewing of the cars, which is free, is from noon to 3 p.m. Awards will be presented at 3:30 p.m. The event is sponsored by the Falls City Mustang Club and benefits the American Cancer Society Relay for Life.