Classic cars roll in for the final Morris Cruise Night

MORRIS — The final cruise night of the year took place Saturday evening with over 5,000 spectators coming out to peer at the 603 cars lined up along Liberty Street.

“We broke our total for the year by 150 cars. It is the largest year we have ever had. All in all, it was a great year, filled with a lot of new things and changes. We are looking forward to next season and we are glad to help these charities next season,” Cruise Night organizer Herb Wyeth said.

The beneficiary of the evening was Special Connections of Grundy County.

The winner of the Beneficiary’s Choice Award was the ‘55 Mercury Monterey Wagon owned by Beau Wright from Manhattan, IL. The celebrity of the event was Joe Schmitz of Operation St. Nick and his choice winner was a ‘56 Chevy Bel Air owned by Randy Marei of Oak Forest, IL.

Cars from 97 cities were registered, including out-of-state, Wyeth said.

To celebrate Halloween, cruise night voted for the best Halloween vehicle entry, the winner was a 2020 Jeep Gladiator owned by Lisa Waswil of Aurora, IL.

“In the last five years, we have had a lot of cars that have never been there. It’s interesting we had so many new people. The spectators came out-it was cool and people still stayed- it was a good night for Morris,” Wyeth said.

The 50/50 raffle raised $6,584 half was awarded to Ken Saieg of Joliet, IL.

Morris Cruise Night is looking for volunteers for next year, for additional information, visit morriscruisenight.com.