Open Header Cruise raises more than $3,000 for Cass County Cancer Services

Published 8:51 am Monday, July 30, 2018

By Sarah Culton

DOWAGIAC — The smell of exhaust filled the air Thursday evening as dozens of people wearing T-shirts that said “Cancer can kiss my rear end” lined Front Street. As the clocks on their watches ticked closer to 7 p.m., people kept glancing expectantly at the stoplight, waiting for something, anything to happen. Soon enough, a parade of classic cars and motorcycles came honking down the street, waving to the crowd as they went by.

“Yeah!” one voice could be heard over the sound of the cars and cheers. “Kick cancer!”

Dowagiac’s third annual Open Header Cruise was hosted Thursday evening. The Open Header “Cruise for a Cause” is an annual event hosted in the memory of Ed Kazlauskas, who died in 2016 of cancer. A Dowagiac native and owner of Jim D’s Body Shop, Kazlauskas was a local car buff who was instrumental in starting Dowagiac’s Rod and Roll Classic Auto Show, which will take place in August.

All money raised from the cruise will go to Cass County Cancer Services. This year, the cruise had 107 participants and raised $3,620 for the organization.

“I think this year went really well. It exceeded my expectations,” said Curt Rohdy, an organizer of the event and a close friend of Kazlauskas. “It turned out really, really well.”

Rohdy said that the money raised was the most the Open Header Cruise has raised in its short history, raising nearly $900 more this year than the previous year.

“I think people are really drawn to the event, because it is something that car people like to do anyways,” Rohdy said. “And this is for a really good cause.”

Not only is Rohdy proud of the cruise and the money it has been able to raise for Cass County Cancer Services, but he believes Kazlauskas would be proud as well.

“I think he would be real pleased with how this turned out,” Rohdy said. “It was something we talked about doing. It’s just too bad he wasn’t able to be a part of it.”

With so many people coming out to the cruise to both support Cass County Cancer Services and to honor Kazlauskas’ memory, Rohdy said he owes a debt of gratitude to the Dowagiac community.

“In a small town like this, the things you can get accomplished if you just ask are amazing,” Rohdy said. “You couldn’t do this in a big city. There is a lot to be said about a small town and the people who are in it.”

To keep the momentum of the Open Header Cruise going, Rohdy said his is already planning next year’s fundraiser, something he was doing as soon as the day after the cruise.

“[Thursday] night, I already had people come up to me asking if we were going to do this again next year. They were even asking me as we were lining up,” he said. “There is a lot of interest, so we will keep this going.”

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