Staying Clean Club’s car show gears up for 10th year

ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- The Belmont County Schools Staying Clean Club, in conjunction with the Classy Chassis Car Club, is gearing up for the 10th annual Car, Truck and Bike Show on Saturday at the Ohio Valley Mall.

The annual event will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with registration beginning at 10 a.m.

Registration is free for all Belmont County Schools Staying Clean Club members. Registration for non-Staying Clean Club participants is $10.

All proceeds from the show will benefit the Staying Clean Clubs to help provide continued programming and activities for students throughout Belmont County.

The Staying Clean Club program promotes positive decision-making and encourages students to make healthy choices while providing opportunities for students to participate in positive activities within their schools and communities.

The Classy Chassis Car Club is a collective of classic car enthusiasts who attend several car shows and cruises throughout the year.

In addition to attending the event for free, all Staying Clean Club students will receive a free event T-shirt. Students who are not currently members will have the opportunity to sign up for the Staying Clean Club.

Belmont County Juvenile and Probate Court Judge Al Davies said that during the 10 years the car show has been active, it has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the Staying Clean Club.

Davies added that the funds go toward drug testing kits, snacks for the students and incentives such as gift cards that the students receive for participation in the club.

He said all of the funds go toward the students and none is used by the juvenile court for court operations.

The Staying Clean Club was created by former Common Pleas Judge Frank Fregiato, who died in December 2025.

Fregiato was a member of the Classy Chassis Car Club and was a big car enthusiast.

"It's a good time to remember Judge Fregiato today because without his efforts, we wouldn't be here 10 years later, and would have raised all of these hundreds of thousands of dollars for kids to help kids stay clean," Davies said. "We're reaping the benefits of that initial work and we've been blessed to have it continue now for 10 years. Hopefully, it continues for another 10 years."

A total of 20 trophies, along with an additional Best of Show trophy, will be presented during the event.

Director of CCAP Noah Atkinson said in a press release that a special part of the annual car show is the involvement of students from Belmont Career Center, who design and create all of the trophies presented at the show.

Senior Brendan Breeden said he was one of the students who participated in designing and creating the 20 trophies.

"We just kind of pieced them together. We drew a little bit and tried to do some blueprints. We took some inspiration from online and searched them up on Google," Breeden said. "We took some inspiration from last year's trophies. Besides that, we just kind of worked together to make them and worked hard."

He added that the trophies were made mainly from transmission parts and scrap metal.

"We went through a couple different prototypes for each trophy. We weren't really too sure what we were going to do, but I think the trophies we have now are pretty good. They all look pretty good," Breeden said. "The first trophy took us two days. I wasn't here for one day to make another one but some of the other people worked on them. I worked on two of them. It took us four days to make two, and it took us about a week to make them all in total."

Belmont Career Center Principal Matt Shreve said the trophies are crafty, and each batch the students make seems to get more creative.

"It's kind of neat how they put different things together, and it all deals with cars and in the years past we've used different programs to donate different items, and they always come up with some things that are pretty cool," Shreve said.

He added that the Staying Clean Club is a great tool for students to get their foot in the door with employers.

"We have some [students] now using it to help them establish part-time employment, so it's a good program, and it continues to grow, which we love to see," Shreve said.