THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 25, 1994 TAG: 9412240449
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 88 lines
As they sat in the office of Martinsville Speedway on that chilly, drizzly morning of Saturday, Dec. 10, president Clay Campbell, marketing director Karen Sifford and public relations vice president Steve Sheppard could only hope that race fans who might be willing to respond to their Christmas appeal would be willing to brave the weather as well.
Outside, there was a steady drizzle. The temperature was in the 40s.
On this day, the speedway planned to give away T-shirts again, just as it had in its promotion in October to sell more tickets to the Grand National race. In fact, these shirts remained from that promotion.
But this time the speedway was asking for a toy in return, a toy for the poor kids in Martinsville and Henry County, Va., who otherwise might have awakened this morning to nothing under the tree, if they even have a tree.
This was a first for the speedway; previous Christmas toy drives had been done through churches and other local organizations.
To attract fans, the speedway had sweetened the pot by arranging to have about 10 souvenir trailers, including champion Dale Earnhardt's. All the trailers had year-end specials. Twenty-dollar T-shirts were going for seven bucks; $15 hats could be had for five dollars.
It was a shopper's paradise for race fans, if they didn't mind being bathed in a cold mist while shopping.
So Campbell and his crew didn't know what to expect. Sifford, who had devised the program, thought it would be great if 500 people came.
But almost an hour before the program was scheduled to start, pickup trucks with Earnhardt decals in the back windows and big old American cars with Rusty Wallace stickers on their bumpers began rolling down Speedway Road and into the track. And as soon as Sifford and Sheppard pulled up to the start-finish line in the van loaded with the T-shirts, a line formed at the double back doors.
By the end of the weekend, there were 1,728 new toys for the local kids, while the folks at the speedway felt anew the true spirit of Christmas.
And all across the South this month, NASCAR people have felt that same feeling.
At Darlington Raceway, employees transformed the credentials office into a South Carolina Christmas wonderland, creating a Santa's workshop complete with a nutcracker room, a toy room and a train room, where raceway president Jim Hunter presided as a conductor.
This was a first for that raceway, too, and more than 2,500 people toured the wonderland on Dec. 16 and 17. It generated $2,000 for local charities. ``We were so thrilled with the turnout, this is going to be an annual event,'' spokesman Russell Branham said.
In Mooresville, N.C., on Dec. 15, 40 drivers and crew chiefs greeted 8,500 people in the fifth annual Stocks for Tots fund raiser. The event, spearheaded by Rusty Wallace and his general manager, Don Miller, generated more than $75,000 and a bunch of toys for the underprivileged children in the area.
In Daytona Beach earlier this month, NASCAR employees engaged in a three-way competition with employees of International Speedway Corp. and Daytona International Speedway to see who could raise the most food for local food banks and the Salvation Army.
They ended up with 1,500 pounds of food between them.
And what can you say about Geoff Bodine? He gave his entire $40,000 Busch pole award bonus to the charity of Ernie Irvan's choice because he thought his victory was tainted by Irvan's season-ending crash at Michigan.
And when Irvan picked the 600 Children's Charities in Charlotte, Charlotte Motor Speedway Chairman Bruton Smith added another $40,000 and car owner Gary Bechtel donated $20,000. That $100,000 and an additional $45,000 was distributed to 28 groups during the speedway's annual tree-lighting ceremony on Dec. 7.
But in Martinsville, it was truckloads and truckloads of toys.
``We had no idea it would be this successful,'' said Pat Conrad, director of the Martinsville Department of Social Services, which helped distribute the toys.
There were baseballs and footballs, and even a few Power Rangers. There were three large boxes full of Barbie dolls and four boxes of stuffed animals. There were hundreds of die-cast cars, of course, race fans being race fans. But they also gave dump trucks and coloring books and a 30-gallon bag full of dolls.
And somewhere in Martinsville or Henry County this morning, a child will play Chutes and Ladders for the first time. Somewhere else, it will be Candyland. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rusty Wallace, shown Thursday in Mooresville announcing a lucrative
contract with Miller Brewing, is spreading the wealth. He helped
raise $75,000 plus many toys for the Mooresville, N.C., area.
by CNB