2022-05-04
Lunenburg car meets continue to be popular
by KEVIN MCBAIN
LUNENBURG - There is no doubt that First South resident Lauren Sharatt is a vehicle fanatic.
The car enthusiast has a 2011 Crown Victoria that she has worked on for the past few years and enjoys showing off the fruits of her labour. After moving to the Lunenburg area last year she decided to invite others with like passions and decided to organize car meets in Lunenburg.
The 24-year-old started a Facebook group, Lunenburg Community Car Meet, last summer and interest grew throughout the year and continued into 2022.
"I thought it was a good way to plant some roots here because I'm very much a car enthusiast and I thought it would be a way to bring the community together," she said. "I saw when I moved here there were a lot of nice, classy cars and the closest place that people went to meet was in Bridgewater and I wanted to do something more local."
She adds that she has received a lot of positive feedback and "it's just a nice place to talk to like-minded people."
The group meets every second Saturday from 6-8 p.m. at the Lunenburg Community Centre and judging from the feedback she hopes that more people will be involved this year. The first meet of 2022 was held April 23 with about 50 cars in attendance.
Sharatt was born in London, Ontario and moved with her parents to the U.K. when she was two years old. The family returned to Canada, Ontario specifically, in 2016 and last year they moved to Nova Scotia.
Her love for cars started when in 2016 when she moved back to Canada and at one point attended a car meet.
"I met a lot of people that were into cars and I actually got my Crown Victoria. I was around those kinds of people and so I started to build my own car and attend a lot of car shows and car meets and it just grew from there," the Ford enthusiast said.
The first job that she held was as a vehicle detailer in Ontario and her passion about vehicles grew from there. She wanted to continue to learn about cars and attended college to learn about autobody work. She is now employed at CSN County Collision in Blockhouse.
When she's not working, she enjoys working on her car and meeting with other enthusiasts, thus the reason to organize the meets.
"Everyone wants to show off what they have built and their nice classic cars and it's just a great way for people to gather and have a chat. It's a nice place to hang out in the evening," she said, adding there are several places to eat within close proximity and many people have taken the opportunity to grab a bite and enjoy the show.
She said they have seen a wide variety of vehicles and a wide variety of people that have come out.
"It's an awesome variety of people and cars that come out. You have new, old and everything in between. Everyone just chills out and gets along that's kind of the main thing. It's just a happy place to be," she said.
Although she wants to keep these gatherings as meets, she wouldn't rule out organizing a car show or maybe offering barbecues.
