A few years ago, Teri Morris was contemplating ways to put a some oomph into her hometown’s summer celebrations. “Every year our little town would have its annual Wales Days celebration. It would start off with a Boy Scout breakfast and then move on to games for the kids, local talent shows, and cute baby and pie-eating contests. It sounds like fun, but the crowds were not there,” she says. “With a town of only about 200 people we knew we needed something to draw people from the surrounding areas.” So Morris came up with the idea of the town having a car show aimed at attracting larger crowds to Wales Days. With the help of her husband, Glen, an “old car nut,” Morris organized the town’s first car show in 2001, which was held during the annual summer event. “The show only had 10 cars, and six of them were ours,” she says. But Morris persevered and the next year, there were 25 entries in the Wales Day’s car show, and the cars paraded through the main streets of town. “Even so, we knew that we had to do something more to draw in the guys who were there with their antique and classic cars. So we thought after the parade we would cruise out into Sanpete County and have a poker run.” It was a big hit and soon the annual event was dubbed the “Wales-Sanpete County Cruise-in and Poker Run.” In 2003, the car show had 35 entries. Last year, Morris teamed up with Ilene Roth, wife of the late “Big Daddy” Ed Roth, who was famous for designing and building hotrod cars and for creating the cartoon characters the Beatnik Bandit and Rat Fink. They held the first-ever “Rat Fink poker run” that included a tour of the world famous Rat Fink museum in Manti and tours of Mt. Pleasant City’s Native Wines winery. “We had more than 60 cars that year,” Morris says. Last year, she helped organize a group of local “classic and antique car nuts” into a formal organization, the Sanpete Cruisers. She and her husband are co-presidents. Already, there are more than 120 members in the local area. The group “cruises” every first and third Tuesday of the month at a different location eatery in Sanpete County. “We eat, talk and kick tires — we have a great time,” Morris says. Sanpete Cruisers have also helped beef up participation the annual poker run. This year’s event, dubbed the Cruise-In and Poker Run COOL Summer Nights, will be held Saturday, July 9. Highlights include a pancake breakfast at 9 a.m. in the Wales town park; the poker run and Rat Fink museum tour from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; a barbeque from 5 to 7 p.m. with music provided by the Old Car Guys and prize giveaways; and an 8 p.m. “Cruise’ to the drive-in theater in Mt. Pleasant City. Cost for the event is $30, which includes tickets for two to the breakfast, barbecue, the poker run and a dash plaque. Extra tickets are $3 for breakfast and $6 for dinner. For more information, contact Teri Morris at 435-283-8286.
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