Tenterfield was filled with bright costumes, brighter cars and La Cucaracha from a five-tone novelty horn on Saturday as more than 600 car enthusiasts hit the road from across Queensland with the 2008 XXXX Gold Queensland Variety Bash.
Entrants were making their way from Toowoomba to Bathurst, donating goods to schools and community services along the way while raising money for sick, disabled and disadvantaged children.
While in Tenterfield, the Bashers donated an educational multimedia pack, a set of learning educational books and a $500 cheque to the Sir Henry Parkes Memorial Public School.
The school matched the cheque with one of its own and plans to spend the entire $1000 on purchasing LEGO(r) sets to help younger classes and disadvantaged children improve their social skills and hand-eye coordination.
Sir Henry Parkes year-6 student Joanna Lusty accepted the donations on the school's behalf.
"Some of the little kids aren't so sure of how parts of the community work," Joanna said.
"The LEGO will help them understand how things like the fire station, or police station work and it will also help them work together and improve hand-eye coordination."
Rotary President Des Taylor said the day was very worthwhile.
"It went really well," he said. "We raised a heap of money with help from the Quota Club and a couple of councillors. In a word, the day was brilliant."
The 2008 XXXX Gold Queensland Variety Bash was the largest event in Bash's 19-year history with 215 pre-1978 cars in the convoy decorated in themes, including Shrek, Pirates, The Godfather, T'Birds, Princess Barbie Coach and the Rocky Bull.
Since 1990, Variety Queensland has raised $13 million for children through the event. In 2007, it granted $2.7 million to help more than 6000 special-needs children with their learning and to gain independence and a better quality of life through wheelchairs, laptop computers and educational equipment.