Bio: Brandt, Craig/Peggy (Loyal Citizens of the Year – 2018)

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Brandt, Lucht,

Source: Tribune/Record/Gleaner (Abbotsford, WI) 14 Apr 2018

Craig and Peggy Brandt may have been the people chosen to receive the 2018 Citizen of the Year award from the Loyal Chamber of Commerce, but they say it’s the entire community that helps them do what they do.

The annual awards were presented at the Chamber’s annual meeting and banquet on April 5 at the Loyal American Legion. The top citizen award was presented by Dave Lucht, who knows well how many hours the Brandts spend in helping to organize the annual Loyal Car Show on the second Sunday of September.

The car show will be held for the 13th year on Sept. 9. It has been successful and is growing because the Brandts “have unselfishly donated their time and talent,” Lucht said. “The payback for them is the goodwill it does for this community.”

Craig and Peggy have been involved with the car show since its first version in 2005, on Main Street. The project was first started as a way to get events and more people to use the Westside Community Park, but organizers worked with the then-owner of the root beer stand to stage it on Main Street. The first show was complete with 22 vehicles, a long rainstorm, and then brutal summer heat. To top it off, that first show lost money.

“We didn’t even come close,” Craig said.

That was then and this is now, and the 2017 show not only broke even, but turned an $8,600 profit. Of that total, $7,000 was given back to various community causes, from high school scholarships to Tractors for Autism to the Never Forgotten Honor Flight program.

The Car Show over the years has expanded to include motorcycles and for the first time in 2017, tractors. There were 124 vehicles at the 2017 show. That number has been consistently high in recent years, with the turn-out often dependent on the day’s weather conditions.

Craig said volunteers are the key to making the show work. That became ever so apparent a few years ago, when organizers almost cancelled it due to a lack of help to do the work to promote the show and then run it in September.

“We can’t so it without the volunteers that we have getting it going,” Craig said. “We were going to end the show because we couldn’t get help.” After appealing for more people, enough came forward to make the show work again, and it has made money every year since that fi rst one. Each year, the organizers meet after the show and decide which groups will benefi t from the proceeds.

Craig said the show keeps going and makes money for the community because so many people are willing to pitch in.

“Everyone supports this show,” he said. “It’s really nice to see a community help you out. “It’s really nice to see a community help you out. We couldn’t do it without you.”

Peggy said the show also thrives because the Loyal and surrounding business communities put their dollars behind it.

“It’s the community and the support of the businesses in the town and the Chamber that have made it go,” she said.