20 Years of Awesomeness!

When the first All Wheels Weekend was held in 1995, the earliest Ford Mustangs were about 30 years old. Now they're celebrating their 50th anniversary. Cars that were new when the first AWW was held are getting close to being classics themselves.

In June of 1995, Elvis would have been 60. Now he'd be almost 80. Justin Shandor, "The Ultimate Elvis," who will appear in Friday night's free stage show, turned 11 that year.

The graduating seniors featured in this week's issue of The Times have never known a time when there wasn't an All Wheels Weekend.

Over the past 20 years, AWW has become one of the top car shows around, and a favorite of classic car owners from around the northwest.

Putting on All Wheels Weekend is a huge job, and the All Wheels Committee and the Chamber of Commerce deserve special thanks this year for making the event bigger and better over the past 20 years.

Special thanks goes out to Bette Lou Crothers, who has been chair of the AWC all 20 times the show has happened. Her State Farm Insurance office turns into AWW central for a month every year.

All Wheels Weekend proved to the Dayton Community that special events like that can be a huge benefit, bringing out our neighbors, as well as visitors. Dayton has gone on to host several very successful events, including Christmas Kickoff, Mule Mania and Dayton on Tour. There's potential for more.

There's also potential for growth of AWW. The opening of the Best Western Hotel has nearly doubled the lodging capacity in Dayton. It will be a great factor in encouraging more visitors to come.

This year's Ultimate Elvis stage show, if it's well received, could be the first of many shows on that scale.

The economy is (slowly) improving, and classic cars are becoming more popular than ever. There's no reason our little corner of Washington can't become one of the top destination for classic and custom cars in the country.

So this Friday night and Saturday, head to downtown Dayton and enjoy the great car show, and its wide variety of events. And dream about how much it could be even bigger and better on its 25th anniversary.