Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By NATHAN HOWELL | Staff Writer

PELHAM – Vineyard Family Services and Central Alabama Wellness are partnering to host a “Cops and Cars” show, which will honor law enforcement and celebrate Father’s Day on June 12.

The event will kick off at 10 a.m. at the Pelham Recreation Center and will feature a number of things like music, prizes, food trucks and a wide variety of cars and motorcycles.

The show is designed to promote a positive relationship between law enforcement and the local community.  There will be a focus on Father’s Day and bringing awareness to VFS and its programs such as BackPack Buddies according to Family Services Director Derick Williams

“We will be teaming up with Central Alabama Wellness to hold a car show,” Williams said. “Our goal with this event is to recognize our law enforcement here in Shelby County and celebrate Father’s Day.”

Williams said that the event was created as a way to try and bridge the gap between at-risk youth, the community and law enforcement in a fun, family-friendly way.

“I deal with at-risk youth throughout Shelby County. We feel like often times there is a negative connotation when it comes to law enforcement and these youths. We developed this program as a way to show our youth here in Shelby County that we can all team up together to improve our communities, to lower the percent of youth drug and alcohol use, teen pregnancies and other things.”

The car show will feature food trucks, a carnival style tent with games and other things, live music, a petting zoo, a health drive and the car show as the main event.

“We are asking a lot of the local law enforcement agencies to bring their cars out to the event,” Williams said. “Having them there will show how important this collaboration is. We are trying to use this event to connect groups with our programs like the Wise Advisors, FIT DAD Program, Keep Your Love On Moms’ Program, and the BackPackBuddies Program. It will make a big difference in the community.”

Through this partnership with Central Alabama Wellness, VFS is seeking to provide resources and opportunities to members in the community to learn not only about the importance of a strong community bond with law enforcement, but also a number of helpful resources that will better serve the community.

“Our main goal is to become the central resource here in Shelby County,” Williams said. “We want to develop all types of resources where people and families can come. With this event we really want to have as many people come out and see exactly what we stand for and how passionate we are about these things.”

The event is free to attend and will take place at the Pelham Recreation Center located at 2020 Ballpark Rd.

Vineyard Family Services is a faith-based, not for profit agency focusing on resources for families in need.

More information about the event and VFS’ services can be found at Vfsdads.com.