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Highlands NC Motoring Festival Gives Back
Written By: Luke Osteen | Issue: Winter - 2023
The high performance stakes of The 2022 Highlands Motoring Festival deliver generous grants for three local causes.
Pictured from left to right: Jerry Hermanson (Community Care Clinic), Bonnie Potts (Literacy), Cindy Trevathan (REACH), and HMF volunteers: Steve Mehder, Steve Ham, Mark Chmar, and Knight Martorell.
With its successful 2022 season receding in its rear-view mirror, Highlands Motoring Festival has tallied up its successes and divvied up the proceeds between its trio of local charities.
At a December 8 ceremony at Kelsey-Hutchinson Founders Park, HMF officials presented checks to The Literacy & Learning Center of Highlands, REACH of Macon County, and The Community Care Clinic of Highlands and Cashiers.
“We’ve completed our final accounting and revenues have exceeded our expectations,” says HMF’s Steve Ham.
The 2022 Highlands Motoring Festival benefited from a pair of events that drew car enthusiasts from throughout North America and Europe – Highlands Motoring Festival, staged from June 9 through 12, and The Mountains Motoring Festival, which wound through this corner of Western North Carolina from September 9-11.
The centerpiece of the motoring festival was Saturday’s Cars in the Park juried car show, which attracted an estimated 3,000 people.
The festival has grown significantly in stature over the years, not by increasing the number of show cars, which is limited by the capacity of Kelsey-Hutchinson Founders Park, but by raising the level of quality of the cars by going to an invitational entry process. Over 50 volunteers joined the 15-member Planning Committee to stage the events.
“The festival would like to thank the entire Highlands community, including citizens, volunteers businesses, organizations, and government officials and staff, without whom none of this would be possible,” said Ham.
Festival organizers are already completing their plans for 2023 – it’ll be staged June 8-11 and the Featured Marque is BMW. To learn more about the ambitious 2023 schedule and to register, visit highlandsmotoringfestival.com and, of course, check in with The Laurel Magazine.
