24th VetteFest Event!

Valley Corvettes Inc.

VetteFest 2023

Boise, Idaho

Thu.-Sat., July 20-22, 2023

Valley Corvettes has sponsored the premier Corvette show in the Pacific Northwest called VetteFest for 24 years! It was three fun-filled days with an all Corvette car show, poker chip rally, silent & live auctions, Corvette cruise scenic drive, an evening social, two dinners and an awards banquet. 

The host hotel was at the Riverside Hotel in Boise, ID along the beautiful Boise River. VetteFest '23 was a huge success with over 180 Corvettes entered into the car show and 285 folks attending the event! This year the proceeds from the auctions went to Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).

REGISTRATION AND EVENING SOCIAL:

VetteFest '23 began with registration package and t-shirt pick up. The 'goodie' bags hand out were loaded with tons of stuff from vendors and some items created by our Valley Corvettes members! At the Evening Social there were plenty of appetizers and old friends got together and new friendships were made!

The driving event on Thursday was the Poker Chip Rally organized by Dan & Sugar Drummond. Our first poker draw was at the Riverside Hotel, then to Avimor village community in the Boise foothills, then we went on a fun drive through Horseshoe Bend to the town of Sweet, then traveling along the beautiful Payette River to Emmett, and finally back to the hotel (half of us went in the opposite direction). We didn't know the value of each colored poker chip until we drew the last chip back at the hotel. Total of 60 cars ran the rally and there were 16 checkpoint workers (thank you for waiting outside in 100+˚ temperatures). Maximum value for a perfect score was 250 points! 

CORVETTE CRUISE SCENIC DRIVE:

On Friday, we went on a beautiful 16 mile scenic drive up to Bogus Basin Mountain Recreation Area with Valley Corvettes President Larry Brown as the leader. Once we arrived, there was plenty of things to do. Lunch was available at the Double R Ranch BBQ Smokehouse, with outside seating under umbrellas. For the adventurous, there was the Glade Runner Mountain Coaster and/or the Scenic Chairlift Ride. There were breathtaking views of the Boise National Forest and downtown Boise. Nice relaxing afternoon!

SILENT AUCTION AND LIVE AUCTION:

Our charities MDA & JDRF really benefited from the numerous events at VetteFest '23! The silent auction had 23 items to bid on. The live auction Friday night at the dinner was a lot of fun with our professional Auctioneer Bill Downs! Ten items were auctioned. There was close to $12,000 in money raised for the charities! Thank you to everyone who bid. 

(Sponsor Fairly Reliable Bob's Bobby Petersen accepting JDRF check from Valley Corvettes President Larry Brown.)

CORVETTE CAR SHOW:

There were 188 Corvettes entered in the Corvette Car Show on Saturday! The show began early with Corvettes arriving at 8 am (or earlier!) to be parked on grass at the beautiful Kleiner Park in Meridian. After a couple hours of cleaning, rags were put down for judging. We had judges from NCRS do the car judging for most of the cars. The modified cars were judged separately. The winners were announced at the Awards Banquet on Saturday evening.

Our Sponsors (see below) had tents and cars on display. Krispy Kreme donuts were available for those wanting a sugar fix. There was a Raffle tent with numerous great items to purchase tickets for. Our "Corvette Closet" store was open with VetteFest '23 hats, extra t-shirts, etc. and Corvette pins for sale. Since the temperature was forecast to be 105˚, it was nice to cool off under the shaded pavilion. There were cooling fans going and plenty of cold water and neck coolers. Lunch was available at numerous food trucks on-site. The 50/50 event sold a lot of tickets over the 3 day event and the big winner received $956 in winnings!

AWARDS BANQUET:

The Awards Banquet for VetteFest '23 was held back at the Riverside Hotel Saturday evening. Winners of the Poker Chip Rally  were:

1st Place:  230 points, four yellow chips, one blue, $150 Amazon gift card & a leather 1st place plaque: Tonya Gaona, passenger

2nd Place:  220 points, four yellow chips, one green, $100 Amazon gift card: Bob Roethler, driver

3rd Place:  Four way tie at 210 points, various chip color combinations! One winner received a $50 Amazon gift card, the other three received $50 bills: Peter Walstrom, driver; David Nightingale, driver; Jay Hainline, driver; Pam Brooks, passenger.

There were 31 Car Show Winner plaques (double click to see complete list) awarded that night. The Best of Show went to TJ Hofhines with his red '23 C8 HTC Z06! The Meridian Mayor's choice was Gary & Donna Saylor's blue '69 Stingray Coupe. The Club Attendance Winner went to the Reno Corvette Club! The Longest Distance Traveled Winner went to Paul & Norma Heeter from San Diego!

After all of the awards were announced, dancing to the band SoulMates continued for the second night. Everyone had a good time!

VOLUNTEERS, SPONSORS & DONATIONS:

There were 70+ Valley Corvettes club member volunteers for VetteFest '23. A special thank you to everyone, as it would not have been successful without each of them! Also thank you to the generous sponsors (see below) and donations that were given FOR VETTEFEST '23. MDA & JDRF are thrilled to be our donation recipients!

Hope to see everyone at our VetteFest event in '25!

VetteFest 2023 Sponsors:

Click here for more information about our great sponsors!

PICTURES:

Scroll through the pictures below, that were provided by the following Valley Corvettes members: Kim Vance (Create Memories Photography), Athena Pardue, Doug Friesen, Dan Drummond, Marcus Crawford and Jeff Brown. Thank you to all!

(Click on any picture to see a larger version.)