With cigarette in hand and distinctive Fu Manchu moustache and matching faint widows, Paul Paulson comes across as a throwback to another time. His orange Pontiac GT, lovingly restored to 1970s fighting trim, clinches the deal. Paulson is a sort of custom classic car cowboy who likes to fix things. A member of the Eastcoast Rod & Custom car club, Paulson is also Quartermaster for the Sloatsburg Volunteer Fire Department — charged with the evaluation, management and distribution of station wear and personal protection equipment. In other words, Paulson has to find a way to make things work with what’s at hand. In brief — he’s the department’s get-it-done guy.

So, when Paulson heard the tale of Amy Clifford from his son, something clicked. Clifford, a Suffern High School student diagnosed in 2011 with a rare cancer, was undergoing radiation treatment at the time and her family was adjusting to the sudden changes. A very dark cloud had descended over the Clifford family and Paulson decided to do something.

“My son is friends with Amy’s brother and I heard about Amy having a battle with cancer,” Paulson said recently, still in his wool dress slacks from attending a Memorial Day parade that showcased the Sloatsburg Fire Department. So thinking things over, Paulson spoke to the fire department and Eastcoast Rod & Custom car club, and everyone decided to throw in together for one big showy fundraiser. The quartermaster at work.

“When Amy started to do the chemo, her mother had to quit her job to take Amy to the hospital,” Paulson said. “Her father had to pick up two jobs in order to keep a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs and food in their bellies. So, it was a stressing time for the whole family.”

“We started doing this in October of last year,” he continued. “Getting the Is dotted and the Ts crossed — vendors, newspapers, radio stations, tv stations. It’s going to be a big showing. I’m estimating over 400 cars.”

Paulson also expects a nice turnout from the Red Knights, an all-fireman motorcycle club.

The Car Show to help the Clifford family takes place Saturday, June 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Sloatsburg Community Field, located across from the Sloatsburg Post Office on Rt. 17. The day’s events include a killer car show of hot rods and reclaimed steel muscle cars, tooled-up motorcycles, track cars, antique fire trucks, a rib cook-off, and plenty of dollar hotdogs and hamburgers with various refeshments to wash it all down. All participating show vehicles pay a $15 registration fee while spectators will be charged $5 per car load (up to four people). Cars with more than four people will be charged $10 per car load.

“Every penny that comes in is all going to be given to the Clifford family,” said Paulson. “It’s for a good cause — not to make any money for the firehouse or anything else. This is actually to help somebody in the community.”

Amy Clifford herself will be one of the stars of the car show. To date, Amy’s prognosis is very positive, or, as the Friends of Amy website says, she’s fighting like a girl. The FLG site was started specifically for people like Clifford and her family as a place to provide women battling cancer and other diseases with a place to go to share experiences, hope and encouragement.

Clifford will be presenting the day’s Amy Clifford trophy to the car of her choice for Best of Show.

“We have a bunch of trophies that are going to be given out,” Paulson said, explaining that there will be Eastcoast Rod & Custom club competition on one level but that there will also be a spectator trophy given as well. Everyone attending the show gets a chance to vote. “Anyone who shows up is going to get a card and they’re going to pick their favorite car,” Paulson said, explaining that show cars will have a number posted on their windshield and all people have to do is write the car number down and drop their vote into an available box.

Trophies will also be awarded in the rib competition.

Local businesses around Sloatsburg have been promoting the event, including Olympic Pizza and Take-A-Break; most any pizza around the village lately comes with a Car Show flyer attached.

Paulson is proud of Sloatsburg for rallying around the fundraiser, which is one of the largest undertakings by the fire department in recent years. “It’s good publicity for Sloatsburg,” he said.

The plan is to hand over funds from the event to the Clifford family at a formal presentation, either at the Clifford house or the Sloatsburg Fire Station. But not until sometime after the car show.

“The Sloatsburg fire department, we’re not making one penny off of this at all,” Paulson said once again, the quartermaster in him making an accounting for everything in the event equation. “What’s going to happen is, everything’s going to be totaled and we’re going to pull together all the guys who did the work for the show to make the presentation. Every penny is going to the Clifford family.”

The Car Show to help the Clifford family takes place Saturday, June 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Sloatsburg Community Field, located across from the Sloatsburg Post Office on Rt. 17. All participating show vehicles pay a $15 registration fee. Spectators will be charged $5 per car load (up to four people). Cars with more than four people will be charged $10 per car load.