Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. sought out to spend their 46th Founder’s day a little differently by celebrating with a car show in the Holland Bowl. Music, “decked out” cars, and a crowd of Aggies contributed to this year’s car show.
“With us, we always try to do something that’s outside the ballpark, something that’s different,” said Austin James, a senior elementary education major from Hartsville, NC and also Spring 2008 initiate of the Zeta chapter of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Inc.
“What we said was people like music, people like looking at nice cars, so why don’t we incorporate that with our founders day celebration and have people actually come to something they want to be at and show us love, rather than making them come to something they have to be at to show us love.”
Various cars were provided by Team Midnight Rider Racing (TeamMNR), a Baltimore originated group whose North Carolina chapter originated back in 2008. The team consists of drivers with interests in domestic racing, and some of which also take part in Auto-X, Drifting, and Drag contests in addition to car shows. The showcase presented an array of cars, such as the Mazda RX-8, Mazda Turbo, Nissan Altima, and Chevrolet Impala.
“We actually went to a car club that specializes in rims, paint jobs and tires and we just reached out to the organization and they helped us bring in a lot more cars,” said James.
Although the majority of drivers were male, to the surprise of many students, some female drivers also took part in the show.
“The girl in the pink and white Honda, she was representing for the females,” said Sam Archer, a freshman engineering major from Raleigh, NC. TeamMNR brought a variety of cars, but several motorcycles were spotted at the function as well.
“Although I’m not that into cars, I really enjoyed the car show,” said Tashyana Chavis, a freshman psychology major from Chapel Hill, NC. “I especially liked the red Cadillac. It was cool experiencing something different than the usual because I don’t usually go to stuff like this.”
Aside from the initial purpose of the event, the celebration of the fraternity’s founders, the show was an opportunity for Aggies to come together and raise participation among students and school related events.
“The atmosphere was incredible,” said Archer. “Along with the music and nice cars, the students really joined together to make the event a success.”
The three-hour event took place in the Holland bowl, in front of the Williams Cafeteria, weeks after it’s original scheduled date of Sept. 19th, which as canceled due to unexpected rain. This is the second year it has taken place, and they hope to make it an annual event.
“I think I would want to go again next year, just to see what type of cars there are and how it will turn out. I think even more people will come to the next one,” said Chavis.
- Jolie J. Sanchez
