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NIE Cruise-In car show is Sunday

By JOHN McVEY

The Journal

MARTINSBURG, W.Va.  — The fall edition of the Newspapers in Education Cruise-In car show is 1-4 p.m. Sunday at the K-Mart in Martinsburg.

Pam Cook, The Journal’s NIE program coordinator, said there will antique, classic and custom cars, trucks and motorcycles. She’s expecting between 100 and 200 participants.

It’s $5 for drivers to register their cars for the show. Each participant gets a dash plaque.

“We’ll have Hag-Mart T-shirts and magnets for sale,” Cook said.

The Hag-Mart was an iconic Martinsburg drive-in on the north end of town during the 1950s and ’60s famous for its curb service and chili hotdogs.

The T-shirts are $18 a piece and the magnets are $1.

NIE also will offer Bon Ton Community Days coupon books for $5. They contain $500 in coupons.

DJ Joe will be on hand, K-Mart will offer concessions and there will be plenty of door prizes.

Also, the Ghostbusters will answer the call with their tricked-out ambulance and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Additionally, the Norwalk Foundation will be selling raffle tickets for a collector’s handgun.

“It’s a limited production Ruger .44 caliber Super Blackhawk 6-shot revolver,” Chris Breeze, vice president of the Norwalk Foundation, said. “There were only 10 made and we have No. 5. It retails for $2,200.

The pistol is plated with 24 karat gold, Breeze said, and it is engraved with local historical scenes, including the Norwalk automobile, the Battle of Falling Waters and the 1877 Great Railroad Strike at the B&O Roundhouse.

The only car manufactured in West Virginia, the Norwalk Underslung Six was assembled in Martinsburg in the early 1900s. The Norwalk Foundation was able to acquire the last existing Norwalk auto, a 1914 model. It is on display at the Washington County, Maryland, Ag Center’s transportation museum.

The Ruger is on display at Shep’s Sporting Goods on Winchester Avenue in Martinsburg. Raffle tickets are $20 each or six for $100. The raffle drawing will be Dec. 9. Breeze said there are only a few tickets remaining.

The NIE program distributes newspapers for free to public and private school classes in Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties for grades 1-12, Cook explained. She said teachers have to request the papers, and Cook makes sure they are going to be used for lessons.

A couple years ago, she said the driving instructor at Jefferson High School requested newspapers, and Cook could not understand why the driving instructor wanted newspapers. So, she hiked herself down to the school to talk to the driving instructor face-to-face.

“He said they have classroom time, and he has the students read about accidents reported in the paper, and then he has them write essays on how the accident could have been prevented,” Cook said. “That’s a perfect use of Newspapers in Education.”

In addition to spring and fall car shows, Cook puts on several fundraisers throughout the year, such as the pet calendar, design an ad competition, country ham sandwich sales and the used book store at 736 Foxcroft Ave.

“I’ve also got a new cookbook coming out,” Cook said. “It’s being printed right now. Recipes are from local folks.”

She has been running the NIE program for 20 years.

“It’s a fun job — I love the job, but I wish there was more we could do,” Cook said.

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