OC Car Show raises $13,300 for student scholarships

About 200 vehicles were displayed at the 2023 Odessa College Car Show on Saturday, Sept. 23, an event that raised $13,300 for student scholarships, according to OC.

The second-annual show consisted of 100 entrants and took place at the OC Sewell Auto Tech facility, a premier automotive and diesel technology training center for both dual credit and traditional students. Eleven classes of vehicles were exhibited this year, ranging from “vintage original to modern muscle and trucks, and everything in between, including imports and exotics,” school officials said.

Funds raised in the show are going to the Elijah Barrera Memorial Scholarship to support current or future students of the training program. Barrera was a member of the first Ford Automotive Student Service Education Training program cohort at OC and graduated in May 2022. Tragically, he died in a motorcycle accident the following Sunday. His fellow cohort of students suggested establishing a scholarship in his memory.

“This is just our second year to have this show, and it’s an amazing community event,” said Robert Turner, department chair of Auto Diesel Technology at OC. “When the auto diesel technology program and the OC Sewell Auto Tech facility were established, the vision was that it would benefit the general public as well as our students in the program. This is one of the ways that we reach out to our community.”

Turner credited community partners such as Sewell Family of Companies and Rogers Ford of Midland for supporting students, graduates and the program.

“They also have generously worked together to cover all costs of the Car Show, so that all of the proceeds may go to the Elijah Barrera Memorial Scholarship,” he said. ”

Any current or future students of the auto diesel program are eligible to apply for the scholarship through the OC Foundation.

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