West Plains Angels car wash will attempt to break world record while benefiting Medical Lake and Cheney youth

The West Plains Angels will host a car wash to raise money for four local groups, but the event is actually part of a nationwide effort to break a world record for most cars washed in an eight-hour period.

The car wash will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the Napa Auto Parts store at 20 Simpson Parkway in Cheney. The cost is by donation.

The car wash is being held at the same time as other car washes at Napa locations around the country, said West Plains Angels co-founder Tony Blount. Each location has witnesses who will keep track of the number of cars being washed.

“At every location it’s video taped from start to finish,” said Blount.

An Australian group holds the Guinness World Records mark at 6,277 cars washed in an eight-hour period. Blount said he’s excited to be part of an effort to break the record.

The event will benefit the Medical Lake Junior ROTC, the Medical Lake High School robotics team Circuit Breakers, the Medical Lake Middle School drama class and the Cheney Community Church’s AWANA program. Blount said the proceeds will be split among the latter three organizations, but regulations prohibit the ROTC program from accepting cash. Instead, the ROTC members will volunteer at the event to gain community service hours, he said.

Blount said he has 45 students from the four organizations signed up to wash cars that day.

“I’m interested in shining the light on these four great teams of kids,” he said. “They are tremendous assets to the community. They’re setting great examples for other kids.”

Bene’s of Cheney will have its Chuck Wagon there serving pizza, hot wings and nachos. “They are really popular,” Blount said of the restaurant. “It looks like an old-time chuck wagon like you’d see on a cattle drive.”

Blount will also be selling tickets for his organization’s Date Night Bundle Raffle. The date night package includes a movie pass for two, a night at the Emerald Suite at the Hampton Inn and dinner for two at Red Lobster. Tickets are $2 each and the drawing is scheduled for June 8. Tickets can also be purchased at Copy Junction, Wild Bill’s Longbar, Ree Creations and Red Zone, all in Cheney, or Rosa’s Pizza in Airway Heights and the Pizza Factory in Medical Lake.

Proceeds from the raffle will benefit the Airway Heights Fire Department and the Medical Lake Middle School drama class.

The West Plains Angels is a local nonprofit founded by Blount and his wife, Amy, last year to raise money for local community groups, veterans’ organizations and nonprofits. “Amy and I have decades of volunteer service,” he said. “It was just kind of a natural for us to establish our own service organization.”

He said they’ve already made donations to the Medical Lake Food Bank, Cheney Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 11326 and the Medical Lake robotics teams. Blount said he and his wife pay expenses out of their own pockets so all the money raised goes to the community.

“Nobody is paid,” he said. “We give 100% of what we get. We want to keep that at 100% as long as we can.”