The fight against cancer waged by the Buckingham County High School (BCHS) Alumni Car and Bike Show reached an important milestone through the money raised by the sixth annual edition of the event this year.

Scotty Edwards, one of the show’s organizers, said it raised $1,980 this time out, pushing the cumulative six-year total past the $10,000 mark. A grand total of $10,150 has now been donated to the American Cancer Society through the show, which is produced in honor and memory of former BCHS classmates who later died from cancer.

Edwards was pleased with this year’s edition of the event, which was once again held in front of Teresa’s Place at Sprouse’s Corner in Buckingham County.

“It was great,” she said. “Every year we think, ‘Oh, it’s run its course,’ but every year we have a lot of the same people that have been there all six years, but then every year we also have a lot of new faces from new counties and get to meet lots of new people.”

She estimated 200-300 people passed through this year’s show, held April 27.

“That’s really hard for me to guess because it’s so many people coming and going at different times,” she said.

In terms of the number of cars and bikes entered in the event this year, Edwards said the last count she heard was 75, but she knew more than that were there.

“It was a lot more,” she said. “This year we had a lot of people that came and just parked their cars and enjoyed the day. They didn’t register, they weren’t worried about winning anything — they just gave a donation. So that was cool, so it was actually more cars there than we had registered.”

Summing up the inspiration for the show, Edwards highlighted Tammy Murphy Jamerson, a former classmate at BCHS and member of the Class of 1989 who later died from cancer.

“She was our inspiration,” Edwards said. “She was just a wonderful human being. Everyone loved Tammy. And I was driving to work one day, and Jamie Bryant, another classmate of ’89, called me, and he said, ‘I want to do something for Tammy.’ And we had discussed doing a walk, but somehow we ended up on the car show, and then Travis (Toney), who’s also a classmate of 1989, became involved, and then Jenny (Shumaker) became involved — she’s a year younger than us I believe — and it was born.”

The show has also honored other former classmates in addition to Jamerson, all of whom have died due to cancer.

Responding to a question about preliminary plans for next year’s edition of the event, Edwards said new features might be added but nothing that would alter what the show already offers.

“Everything we have added so far has just worked so well,” she said. “The last two years, Jenny has been making shirts. She makes them herself, and they have been a huge success. So we may add some new things, but I don’t think we’re going to change anything up. It’s working pretty well.”