Straight Eights Hosts RB Beach Ball
Every September, the Straight Eights Gay Car Club hosts its invitational Beach Ball in Rehoboth Beach. The Straight Eights is the largest chapter of the Lambda Car Club International (LCCI) and includes the Washington, DC, Northern Virginia and Maryland regions. Their philosophy is “you don’t have to own a car to join us; just have a love of cars of all types.” Unlike many car clubs, all cars are welcome at Straight Eights events from classics, muscle, luxury, compacts, wagons, and from any era up to the present day.
Beach Ball has been held in Rehoboth Beach for over 15 years, and in 2012, the Straight Eights will host the LCCI Grand Invitational over the course of the third weekend in September as a kind of expanded Beach Ball. Also in the planning stages is a pre-Grand Invitational event the days prior, highlighting the DC Metro region, where most of the club’s members reside.
Beach Ball includes a reception, a dance, a road trip and the big car show at Grove Park, followed by an awards banquet. Every year, more than 150 people from the region and as far away as Palm Springs, CA, come to Beach Ball for this fun-filled weekend.
During the year, the Straight Eights, which has over 175 members, hosts road rallies, BBQs, museum outings, car show trips, parades, festivals, and during the summer months, a cruise-in every third Sunday at PW’s Sports Bar in Laurel, Maryland. In addition, for the past four years, the Straight Eights have held a “peanut butter and treat drive” benefiting the Washington Animal Rescue League at the monthly cruise-ins. At their annual holiday party, they have collected goods and merchandise for the Washington Animal Rescue League worth as much as $10,000.
The Straight Eights biggest event, other than Beach Ball, is their Annual Spring Fluff-Up. This is the first event of the year, where the cars are dusted off and brought out for a cookout and fun day of schmoozing and of course, admiring any new acquisitions that have joined the club’s “motorcade.”
Come to the park on Saturday, September 25 from 11:30-3:30 and see all the great cars from your youth. We guarantee you will say at least once, “My dad used to have one of those.”
For more information, visit www.straight8s.net.