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(Taken from the Winnipeg Free Press, September 2007 - Willy's Garage)
When Mary Blonski purchased her 1997 30th Anniversary Edition Chevrolet Camaro SS, the first thing she did was surf the Internet looking for a local Camaro club to join. Despite the fact that almost five million Camaros were built from 1967 to 2002, and over 1,000 Camaro clubs exist globally, Mary was surprised to learn there was no local club for the iconic sports coupe in Manitoba.
There was a car club representing almost every car imaginable, yet nothing specifically for Camaros,” offered Blonski, who quickly opted to take matters into her own hands. After contacting Bev Dyck from the Manitoba Association of Auto Clubs, Mary attended her first MAAC meeting last spring and got the wheels in motion to create the Manitoba Camaro Club.
Throughout the summer she has been recruiting members at local show and shines, notably the Cruisin’ the Peg car show every Sunday at the Canad Inns Tavern United in Transcona, and one of the first members Mary corraled was Marc Nolin, now the vice president of the club.
Nolin was born in Quebec and moved to Winnipeg a couple of years ago. In addition to being an executive with General Motors of Canada, Nolin is also a longtime Chevrolet enthusiast who races his 1980 Camaro at Gimli Dragway.
Starting a car club may sound like an easy mission but Mary quickly learned that if she wanted to do it right there was more than a few hoops to jump through. "I attempted to register the club name through the Manitoba Companies Office in June,” recalled Blonski, “but the name Manitoba Camaro Club was rejected due to Camaro being a registered trademark". After making contact with General Motors in Detroit, the good folks at GM forwarded an application and waived the $500 fee for the club to use the Camaro name. A club logo also had to be created and Don Yewish from autoclubs.ca stepped up and created it free of charge.
With all the paperwork in order, the club held its first meeting Sept.18 at Vickar Community Chevrolet on Regent Ave. A total of 18 spiffy Camaros, representing all four body style generations, were on hand and by evening’s end 37 new members signed membership applications. In addition to kind words for the newly formed club executive who helped make her dream a reality, Blonski also praised the club’s key sponsor. “A special thanks goes to Larry Vickar and all his great staff for supporting our members,” added Blonski. “We all really appreciate the generosity and hospitality Vickar set up the dealership’s service reception area for the club’s first meeting and also provided snacks, coffee and pop for the Camaro crowd. "It was great to see all the members stand up and introduce themselves and say a few words about their cars”, offered the always enthusiastic Vickar. “This promises to be a fantastic car club and I’m sure many great friendships will be forged as a result of Mary’s hard work". | 
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