Texas Motor Speedway Gives $500,000
{fshare id=3280}
FORT WORTH, Texas (Nov. 27, 2012) – Speedway Children’s Charities-Texas Chapter continued its tradition of helping non-profit organizations improve the lives of children in North Texas as the charity distributed more than $500,000 in grants during its annual Christmas tree lighting and grant ceremony at Texas Motor Speedway.
Speedway Children’s Charities-Texas Chapter ushered in the special evening with a Christmas celebration, complete with holiday songs sung by members of the Chisholm Trail Middle School Choir from Rhome and topped off with the arrival of Santa Claus in Texas Motor Speedway’s “No Limits” Wild Asphalt Circus Ural motorcycle with sidecar. With the help of Santa Claus, Speedway Children’s Charities-Texas Chapter kicked off the ceremony with the traditional lighting of “The Biggest Living Christmas Tree In The Metroplex,” a 65-foot Douglas fir tree adorned with more than 10,000 lights and oversized ornaments. To continue with the season of giving theme, Speedway Children’s Charities-Texas Chapter awarded grants to 19 Dallas/Fort Worth-area organizations, including two prestigious Founder’s Grants of over $130,000 each to Christian Community Action and Girls Incorporated of Metropolitan Dallas.
The Founder’s Grant, first instituted in 2009, continues to help organizations fund capital improvement projects. For Christian Community Action in Lewisville, receiving a Founder’s Grant will help continue its effort to improve the lives of struggling families.
Christian Community Action has served families in need since 1973 and currently
serves more than 4,800 children. The grant will help the organization transform its warehouse into a learning haven for children.
“This distinguished and very generous award will fund our new ‘Youth in Motion’ facility, which is scheduled to open in 2013,” Christian Community Action President and CEO Ron Batts said. “The focus of this new learning center will be to teach the STEM curriculum (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) in a fun, collaborative environment. Our nation is facing a critical shortage of engineers, scientists and mathematicians and we believe our ‘Youth in Motion’ center will help alleviate that deficit by inspiring hundreds of disadvantaged children in our community – kindergarten through eighth grade – to pursue careers and opportunities in these critically-needed areas.”
Girls Incorporated of Metropolitan Dallas, the second Founder’s Grant recipient, will utilize the grant for much-needed transportation upgrades. The organization, which has helped empower young girls for more than 43 years, has continued to drive outdated, high-mileage vans to transport girls to its four campus sites across Dallas.
The Founder’s Grant will enable the organization to purchase a new fleet of buses, providing vital transportation to the more than 800 girls it serves throughout the year. The buses will be decaled with Speedway Children’s Charities’ recognizable logo.
“We are extremely grateful to receive this grant,” Girls Incorporated of Metropolitan Dallas CEO Lori Palmer said. “Our deepest thanks to Speedway Children’s Charities and its support of girls and young women. Parents often lack the resources to provide transportation and without these vehicles not many girls would be able to participate in our programs. Speedway Children’s Charities has made a critical difference in the lives of our girls.”
Coupled with grants, Speedway Children’s Charities-Texas Chapter, with the help of key sponsors, provided crafts and distributed toys and cowboy boots to the children from the organizations receiving grants. One hundred children were able to decorate their own Christmas ornament courtesy of Michaels, as well as receive two Mattel toys and a pair of cowboy boots courtesy of Toyota of Fort Worth.
In addition to the Founder’s Grants, Speedway Children’s Charities-Texas Chapter also awarded 17 Partner Grants ranging from $6,000 to $25,000. The recipients of this year’s Partner Grants are:
Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Fort Worth
Camp Summit, Inc.
Cancer Care Services
Children’s Craniofacial Association
Children First, Inc.
Cook Children’s Health Foundation
Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center
Denton Kiwanis Club Children’s Clinic, Inc.
Heroes For Children
Interfaith Housing Coalition
Interfaith Ministries of Denton, Inc.
Mary Crowley Cancer Research Centers
Network of Community Ministries, Inc.
Prevent Blindness Texas
Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth
Tarrant Area Food Bank
Texas Christian University KinderFrogs
Speedway Children’s Charities-Texas Chapter has continued to make an impact on the lives of children during its 16 years serving North Texas. Speedway Children’s Charities-Texas Chapter has distributed more than $8.5 million in grants since it was established in 1997 and has touched the lives of more than two million children. To illustrate the impact, you could fill the grandstands of Texas Motor Speedway 15 times with the number of children that have benefited from the charity’s support. The funds raised to help benefit Speedway Children’s Charities-Texas Chapter are generated through special events held throughout the year at Texas Motor Speedway to help organizations in the four counties it serves – Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant.
