Rockhurst’s Automotive Club geared up for an auto show during Activity Period on Nov. 3. The club, founded a few months ago, fueled Hawklets with an opportunity to view, and even rev, the engines of some luxurious cars.
Moderator of the Automotive Club, STEAM Director of Experiential Learning Tyler Baker, helped organize the event. Members of the club invited their dads to make a pit stop at Rockhurst and display their cars. Three dads ended up attending.
“What better way to connect guys who like cars with the community than bringing in a community that also like cars?” Baker said. “It just so happened that these guys are all dads of kids on the Automotive Club, so our first step for the car show was to bring in people that we knew.”
President of the club, junior John Skoch, sought to bring student engagement to the club through the event.
“Our goal with the car show was to inspire and bring attention to our new-found club,” Skoch said. “Most high school guys don’t have the coolest or flashiest cars per se, but our dads sure do.”
The event, which took place in Rockhurst’s south parking lot, had five cars present. According to students who attended, the most popular cars were a 2005 Ferrari F430 and a 1957 Ford Thunderbird.
Junior Jeb Koetting enjoyed the opportunity to view some rare cars.
“It was a cool experience to be able to see some cars that you don’t see everyday,” Koetting said. “It was also cool to be able to hear the engines in person.”
Baker admits he is not an automobile enthusiast, but he helped found the club due to growing demand from students.
“I don’t know much about automotive. But if students want and desire to have something in place, I will bend over backwards to make sure it happens. So when they came to my office with that letter asking for the Automotive Club, my immediate response was, ‘How can I help?’”
Baker plans to recruit younger Hawklets in order to grow the club.
“We want to figure out how to reach the freshmen and sophomore groups so that, when they are growing into junior and senior year, they can certainly join the club as well.”
Aiming for higher attendance within the club is a sentiment that Skoch agrees with.
“Growing the club has been our main focus from the start,” he said. “Public events are vital to our growth.”
Going forward, Baker wants to utilize the club as a means of teaching students basic mechanical skills. These skills include, changing tires, fixing engines and putting on belts. Baker also plans to reach out to the entire Rockhurst community, not just members of the club, for future car shows.
He also wants to give students that are involved in the club more opportunities.
“A part of it is bringing that community in. And so we’re going to do more car meets. We want to do tailgating at the football games. We want to start to look at how we can expand the offerings that we have for the kids that are in the club.”
With winter weather coming in, Skoch says it is unlikely car shows will become a regular occurrence for the remainder of the semester. However, he expects to jump start the auto shows in the spring.
