FAIRFIELD — The 30th annual Tomato and Vine Festival wrapped up Sunday with something new this year: a motorcycle show.
Carrie Fahey started working at Anheuser-Busch in March when she heard about the annual Families Helping Families car show at the brewery. Brewery employees haven’t been to the auto show for two years because of the pandemic but offered a Saturday at the Tomato Festival.
“I was thrilled to hear about this program,” she said. “Then I realized maybe having a motorcycle show would be a great way to get more people to come on Sunday and donate more.”
Fahey talked it over with Families Helping Families, whose leaders also loved the idea, and then presented it to the city for approval.
“I thought the bikers we know love to host events like this to help out the community, and they would pick it up,” she said.
Fahey spoke with her husband Mike, who owns Grumpy’s Motorcycle Shop in San Bruno, and suggested that maybe some of his regular customers would be interested in doing a motorcycle show. A few agreed and brought their rides on Sunday.
One thing Fahey didn’t count on was the number of other auto shows in nearby communities.
“Next year I’m going to take a look at the calendar and plan the motor shows competing this weekend,” she said.
“Everybody loves motorcycles,” Fahey said. “And working with the city was a breeze.”
“Some of my men couldn’t come because of the fires in El Dorado County,” Mike Fahey said. “They had to stay home and pack for evacuations.”
He said he was happy with the turnout and looked forward to more bikes arriving at the show.
“We’re expecting around 15 bikes from people I’ve contacted,” he said. “I loved the idea too. It’s really about helping the community.
Vincent Scholl, president of Families Helping Families, said he was thrilled with the auto show on Saturday and was really excited about the new motorcycle show.
“We brought in about $1,000 in donations from (Saturday) with the beer garden and the car show,” he said. “It’s so exciting to be able to help with Thanksgiving meals.”
Families Helping Families officials hope to raise enough money to feed 400 families from Rio Vista to Dixon in November. The plan is to have enough food for two weeks of meals for each family.
