Rodfathers host 30th annual Cruise-A-Palooza
A large chunk of Main Street in Butler was closed off on Sunday, June 22 to make room for a spectacle for auto enthusiasts of Western Pennsylvania, the 30th annual Cruise-A-Palooza hosted by the Rodfathers car club of Butler.
For the Rodfathers, the Cruise-A-Palooza is the second of three large-scale car events the group is hosting in the month of June, and 10 in total this year. On June 7, the Rodfathers hosted the ARMCO Park Car Cruise in Slippery Rock, and another car cruise is scheduled for the Community Alliance Schurch in Butler on Thursday, June 26.
Rodfathers president John Malinski estimated between 1,800 and 2,000 cars cruised into Butler for the event, parking along Main Street and some side streets. When asked how they manage to fit so many cars into so little space, he said, “We’ve been doing it for 30 years. We’ve figured out how to do it by now.”
According to Malinski, funds raised through this event will benefit multiple local charities, although the exact charities to benefit from this year’s event have yet to be determined.
“At the end of the year, right around Christmas, we pick out the charities,” Malinski said. “We've given to the American Red Cross, we gave to Camp Cadet, the Humane Society, stuff like that.”
The Rodfathers raised funds for charity through T-shirt sales and 50/50 raffle tickets.
The cruise was a chance for the public to see some ultra-rare vehicles they may never get the chance to see again, such as a brown 1936 Terraplane coupe, owned by Gregg Happ, of Beaver County.
Happ estimates that his is one of only three cars like it known to still exist. He obtained his in December 2023 from a family who had no idea what it was.
“It was sitting in a garage since 1960 in Baden, Pa,” Happ said. “They didn't even know what the car was. They thought it was a ’36 Ford when I went to go look at it. It was all in pieces. And when I went to look at, I'm like, ‘This isn’t a ’36 Ford.’”
Sitting in front of the Chop Shop were two race cars decked out in sponsorship: a late-model 1972 Chevrolet Nova, driven by 83-year-old Larry Walters, and a “modified” race car sponsored (in part) by the Chop Shop itself.
Colton Walters attended the Cruise-a-Palooza less than 24 hours after driving the modified car in a race at Sharon Speedway in Hartford, Ohio.
“We actually raced last night and finished eighth, and we got home at 1 in the morning, got everything washed and cleaned up to come down here today,” Walters said. “We race at Lernerville, Sharon, and throughout Western Pa., Ohio, and New York.”
At least one Butler Main Street business, the Chop Shop, opened for business on Sunday — something it doesn’t usually do — to feed the throng of visitors.
“It’s a pretty big event,” said restaurant manager Brittney Harrell. “They help us out, and we help them out.”
Also bringing a vehicle to the cruise was the local branch of the Antique Automobile Club of America, which had a booth to recruit new members. The club brought one of its restoration projects, a 1909 Huselton built in Butler, which can also be seen at the Butler Built Garage Open House event on July 20.
“We are a group that loves the Butler-built cars,” said club member Dan Sum. “We try to preserve them, and we're looking for new members.”
