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Volunteer Spotlight
Written By: Jenny King | Issue: 2016/06 - June
If you’re not a car fanatic, you might not understand the siren song heard by so many.
Steve Ham of Highlands has fallen victim. Actually, he fell victim at an early age and has succumbed quite happily. He remembers riding around with his dad as a five-year-old, identifying different makes and models. Steve is one of the many volunteers who work with the annual Highlands Motoring Festival, which raises funds for the Literacy Council of Highlands. It’s a lot of work, but the Literacy Council members offer invaluable support, especially during the morning of the actual show.
“It’s a crazy couple of hours but I get a lot of energy from the people who attend,” he says. “I love seeing grandparents introducing their grandchildren to the thrill of classic cars.”
While he doesn’t consider himself a “car collector” but a connoisseur, he has one very special car in his life, a 1965 Chrysler 300 L that is currently garaged near Walhalla. How he found it is really a story of kismet. Ham traveled a lot for his business and in 1997 was passing a junkyard in South Carolina. He saw a car that looked like the one he learned to drive in and stopped to take a peek.
Long story short, it turned out to be the exact car – his dad’s old Chrysler that had been traded in 1969. Having saved all the keys from his previous cars, Ham came back to Highlands, grabbed the key, ran back to the junkyard and opened the trunk! He says somewhere along the way the ignition had been changed out, but the trunk key fit.
He admits with a laugh that perhaps the car should have stayed where it was but he and a friend have continued to work on it. His hope is to have it proudly displayed in the Highlands Motoring Festival in the next couple of years.
In the meantime, he’ll continue to support the festival’s fundraising efforts for the community however he is needed. For more information about the Highlands Motoring Festival, visit HighlandsMotoringFestival.com or call (828) 526-5841.
