Ron Mobbs, Chair, with Restore Community Fundraiser, Elaine

The temperature dial hovered around the 30 degree mark all day on the August Bank Holiday, as car enthusiasts, locals, families and Festival lovers streamed into Cutteslowe Park. The Oxford Isis Rotary team gave us a lovely welcome on site and, on our Restore stall, we were very thankful for the shade of our gazebo!

The Mini cavalcade rolled in at around 11am and that was a genuine spectacle – a rainbow display of 60 Minis in convoy, travelling in from the BMW Oxford plant, to mark the 60th anniversary of the public launch of the Mini. The cars then parked up, joining the array of all the fabulous classic Vehicles on display.

Throughout the day, the crowd enjoyed tea and cakes, chilled prosecco, barbecue food, ice creams and live Jazz. There were some entertaining talks in the display ring, including interviews with car experts and enthusiasts and a popular Dog Show.

Lots of people popped by our stall to say thank you to Restore, as either they, or someone they know and love, have been supported in their mental health recovery by our charity, over the years. Others drifted over to find out more about our current projects in the community, and about how they could get involved by volunteering. We’re grateful to everyone who played our Lucky Dip, bought some of our beautiful handmade craft items, or just put some money in our collection tin.

Ron Mobbs, President of Oxford Isis Rotary Club, said ‘This was the twelfth year of the Cowley Classic Car Show and our most successful ever in terms of the number of vehicles on display, the number of visitors to the showground and the money raised for charity. We are delighted that from this year’s show we are able to donate £6,000 to Restore to enable them to keep up their good work in the community.’

We want to say a huge thank you to Oxford Isis Rotary, who put in lot of time, energy, planning and commitment to make this event so enjoyable and successful – all your hard work is deeply appreciated by us, our Members and their families: thank you!