2019 Cars, Stars & Handlebars

Cars, Stars, and Handlebars is a unique fundraising event which benefits the Volunteer Services Council for Big Spring State Hospital (VSC) and the Big Spring Rotary Club.  These two charitable organizations have ‘roots’ in Big Spring and Howard County since 1938. 

The Volunteer Services Council (VSC) provides personalized supports for the patients and the families of patients served by Big Spring State Hospital.  The VSC provides financial support for the Don and Marilyn Newsom Family Visitation Center, a state-of-the-art Pet Therapy program, the Tollet Chapel, a multi-use therapeutic recovery court yard, and many other projects which help make Big Spring State Hospital a premier regional psychiatric hospital.  The Big Spring State Hospital employs an active workforce of 520 employees and is a cornerstone for the economic diversity for Howard County. 

The Big Spring Rotary Club is the legacy civic service group for Big Spring since 1938. The Rotary Club provides scholarships to local youth and supports a literacy project for all Howard County 3^rd grade students by providing each a personal illustrated reference dictionary. Additionally, the Big Spring Rotary Club provides support for numerous service projects on both a local and international level.   

What is Cars, Stars, and Handlebars?

Beginning in 2007 the VSC decided to bring to the community a new type of fun fundraising event to benefit the patients of Big Spring State Hospital and raise community awareness of the importance of mental health treatment. The event is a Reverse Raffle with the final raffle ticket holder winning their choice of an automobile, truck, or motorcycle from one of Big Spring’s local dealers. In 2016 the VSC entered into a partnership with the Big Spring Rotary Club to incorporate additional volunteer energy in coordinating the event.  Through the history of the event community support has continued to grow and attendance at the event consistently tops 500 people.

Cars, Stars, and Handlebars limits the number of available raffle tickets to only 1000. Each raffle ticket provides the ticket owner and a guest admission to the event. The event includes ‘Casino games’ and entertainment for the event attendees as they monitor the course of the raffle results over electronic screens. When the drawdown of tickets reaches 100 remaining tickets each ticket holder’s name is announced until the final 10 ticket holders are determined. The holders of the final ten tickets are invited to the event stage and provided the opportunity to auction their ticket to other event attendees. This process is continued until the final ticket is drawn.   This ‘Final 10’ portion of the event always provides excitement and entertainment attendees and often holders of a Final 10 ticket can ‘sell’ their ticket for considerable amounts, increasing the number of attendees with a chance to benefit from the event.