From The Staff
Let’s Get to Doin’ What We Can Do
By David Marin & The CruZin' Staff
There was something of a hubbub over my comment last issue regarding the average age of individuals that attended the Washington State Hot Rod Hall of Fame banquet last April. Seems that a few individuals took exception to my observation that I saw no more than one youngster taking part in the festivities. If, in my ignorance, I overlooked a teenager or two, my apologies. I would, however, stand by my assessment that the average age attending was over 40 — that’s probably conservative.

The point wasn’t and isn’t about who was there; there was a wonderful crowd. The point is who wasn’t there, and by that I mean there wasn’t an under 20 contingent.

In any event the hubbub was all good. Obviously, we’re all in the same boat, we all want to see our hobby grow and prosper. It is both our legacy and responsibility.

Word from the Hall of Fame is that there are plans in the works that will make for more interaction with youth elements. Perhaps scholarships, perhaps one-on-one interaction with youngsters interested in pursuing a career in the automotive field. The eyes and ears appear open and willing to look at and/or listen to anything.

On the home front (the CruZin’ office), we’ll continue to do what we’ve done for years, only we’ll be trying to do more of it. And yes, you can help.
What we’ve been doing for years is offer a free subscription to high schools, vocational schools, technical schools, colleges, basically any educational institution that would expose our hobby to youngsters with an interest in the automotive world.

What we haven’t been is aggressive. We’ve let word of mouth get the word around that a freebie subscription is there for the asking, all any school has to do is do the asking. So part of CruZin’ being more aggressive is a campaign to turn the handful or two of schools that are currently receiving the magazine into a comprehensive list of all such schools in the northwest.

Which brings us to how your help is requested. If you know of a school that has a worthwhile automotive program— put them in touch with us or vice-versa. If you have a kid, or grandkid, that is attending an automotive program— get them in touch with us.

The more the better, we just plain can’t have too many youngsters exposed to our hobby. It’s something you can help us do and it is, in some small way, something we can do to thank this hobby that has been so very good to us.

Stay low in the turns and Keep CruZin’,
David Marin & the CruZin’ Staff