This year a bright blue classic 1966 Mustang has been the center of attention at events all around Kingston. The restored muscle car is being raffled off by the Greater Kingston Kiwanis to raise funds in support of local programs such as the Boys and Girls Club and the Kiwanis Foundation scholarships. This unusual fundraising method began four years ago with a donation by local homebuilder Jerry Schmidt.

Schmidt has been working on old cars “since I was about 10 years old.” His first was a 1929 roadster his father bought, but Schmidt “started playing around with it and six years later it was the first car I drove when I was old enough for a license.”

Through the years, though, it has always been muscle cars that have consumed his spare time.

“At one time I enjoyed drag racing and had a Camaro or two, but then I started back into racing with Mustangs.”

In fact, he said, the first new car he ever owned was a 1965 Mustang he bought when he was 19, and the next was a 1967 Mustang. “I’ve owned a lot of Mustangs through the years.”

Rebuilding cars has been an important part of his life and one of his favorites ways to spend what leisure time he can find. Since the late 1980s, he has built more than 450 custom homes and has moved from California to Montana. After his first wife died, however, he decided to move to Kingston to be near his sister. During that difficult transition he rebuilt a 1969 Camaro and then sold it on eBay.

“I had gotten away from working on the cars for a while, but that one was a relief,” he said.

In 2005, he met Lori Hansen, whom he subsequently married, and watched her head the rummage sale that was the Kiwanis largest fundraiser at the time. “I saw how time-consuming it was for Lori to manage, and I had a Mustang that I had been working on, so I decided to just donate it to be raffled off so Lori and I could have more time together,” he said.

The next year he was joined by an anonymous donor and was able to fix up a second Mustang to raffle. This year’s car is the fourth he’s done, and the success of the program has grown to the point that purchase of future cars is now sustained by ticket sales.

“The cars have gotten better each year,” Schmidt said. “I took the first one from what was essentially a pile of junk and did all the work on it. I converted it from six to eight cylinders, put on disk brakes, put in new upholstery, had it painted, and essentially fixed every little thing that was wrong with it.”

This year’s car, he said, was already close to being done when it was bought.

“It had a few little things. We wanted a 350 front end, but I had to fabricate a license plate holder because there wasn’t one available, and then the hood latch didn’t quite work, so I fabricated one that would hold it down, but basically the hardest things were done,” he said.

The 1966 Mustang being offered this year, he said, has some great details including dual exhaust, front disk brakes, custom wheels, custom upholstery, and a new stereo system that’s state-of-the-art for this kind of car.

The Greater Kingston Kiwanis is selling 3,500 tickets at $10 per ticket, available from a Kiwanis member or at various events where the car is being displayed. The winning ticket will be drawn on Labor Day, according to fund-raising coordinator Judy Osborn.