Posted on 06/17/2004 11:32:35 AM PDT by Johnny Gage
Camp running at 150 smiles per hour
By Marty Smith, Turner Sports Interactive
June 17, 2004 - 10:50 AM EDT (1450 GMT)
For most of his life, Kyle Petty's success has been measured in race wins and miles per hour. But from here to eternity a more revealing measure of the man will be used -- For most of his life, Kyle Petty's success has been measured in race wins and miles per hour. But from here to eternity a more revealing measure of the man will be used -- racing hearts and smiles per hour.
Whether or not Petty ever leads another lap, his impact on society will be as influential as that of any professional athlete in American history. I know that's a bold statement, considering the respective impacts of athletes like Jackie Robinson and Muhammad Ali and Arthur Ashe and Billie Jean King on various facets of our culture.
But it's not overblown. Trust me. What Robinson did for minorities and Ashe did for AIDS patients and King did for women, Petty is doing for chronically ill children.
He's empowering them.
By building the Victory Junction Gang Camp in honor of his late son Adam, Petty has done more for chronically ill children than he could have ever done in a driving capacity alone. He is offering more than time, more than money.
With help from his wife, Pattie, children Austin and Montgomery Lee and a slew of volunteers, Petty is offering priceless opportunities to children who rarely receive them.
"This is an empowerment facility," said Petty on Tuesday as the facility was unveiled. "For a week, these kids can be Michael Jordan or Tony Stewart. They may not be that at home, but here they are. In a lot ways, for us, we feel like we lost one son and gained hundreds, and hopefully thousands, of sons and daughters."
This camp was Adam's vision. As part of the Kyle Petty Charity Ride, he and Kyle used to visit children's hospitals. Adam adored those visits, and hoped to one day create a paradise that made sick children feel normal.
Four years ago, when Adam died in a crash during practice at New Hampshire, that hope became Kyle's mission.
He worked tirelessly, sat through countless board meetings, met with developers and used the wealth of resources NASCAR provided him to construct the camp Adam wanted. It wasn't easy. At times the outlook was bleak.
Bobby Labonte and Dale Jarrett were key players as the first drivers to donate funding and raise awareness. Petty said without them they'd never have made it. Then there's Tony Stewart. Anyone who thinks he needs an attitude adjustment on the racetrack needs only witness him at Victory Junction. He's plumb giddy.
His monetary contributions will total some $1.3 million, though you'd never know it, were it not for several mentions by Kyle. Stewart wants no recognition, only to help out a friend and thousands of children in need. Several NASCAR personalities have followed suit.
Brian Vickers and Jeff Gordon are major contributors. Rick Hendrick donated the Fuel Stop cafeteria, in which Hendrick Motorsports cars are suspended from the ceiling and will perform audible "burnouts" every hour on the hour. One family, who lost their teenage daughter in an automobile accident, donated a horse barn fit for Secretariat.
GlaxoSmithKline donated the Goody's Body Shop, a Disney World-meets-E.R. infirmary of sorts filled to the brim with every supply imaginable. So advanced is this facility that children can receive kidney dialysis and even chemotherapy, if necessary.
Nextel handed Kyle and Pattie a $1 million check Tuesday night. In all, 21,000 donations raised $24 million. That's impressive, but isn't enough. The importance of donations to this camp can't be overstated.
A key goal for Victory Junction is to provide an expense-free experience for every child. Kyle is seeing to it that participants pay for nothing. Not airfare, not clothing, not supplies. Nothing.
Tony Stewart looks at a goat in the barn during the opening of the Victory Junction Gang Camp. Credit: AP
"I don't want people to forget that we still have to drive donations so that children can get here," Pattie said.
True. The property is gorgeous, the buildings state-of-the-art. But without the kids, they're nothing.
"It's like NASCAR Nextel Cup racing. Until you come here and see the camp -- all the pictures you take and all the things we say on TV -- you can't understand the scope of what it is," Kyle said.
"It's amazing when you look out across the camp itself and see the buildings and what so many people have done, and what so many people have believed in. But when you see the kids here it's a totally different place. You don't pay any attention to the buildings. All you see is the kids."
Though the entire campus is pristine, one structure stands out among the rest. Adam's Race Shop is shaped and painted like Adam's No. 45 Chevrolet. It is unsponsored, so Austin and Montgomery Lee are organizing a golf tournament at Pinehurst No. 2, site of the 2005 U.S. Open PGA Tour event, to help finalize sponsorship of the building.
"There's no building in this camp that means more to me than that race shop, because I know how important it was to Adam to have the best race shop, and now he does," said an emotional Montgomery Lee to a rain- dampened crowd. "He has one that's better than everybody's.
"I know Adam would be so proud. It's OK that it's raining, because there's a song that talks about how there are tears from Heaven, and I know they're Adam's tears crying because he's not here."
Though absent in body, Adam's indomitable spirit was most certainly there. Ninety nine percent of the time supernatural phenomena are intangible. I believe folks on the other side want us to know they're among us, and do so the slyest of manners -- a special song hits the airwaves at the very moment you think of a lost loved one, a vivid rainbow glitters over a graveyard on a special date.
One of the treatment rooms in the "Goody's Body Shop" is shown during the opening of the Victory Junction Gang Camp.
Adam was not sly Tuesday. Rain poured from the Heavens as the ceremony got underway, but minutes before his former team was, unbeknownst to them, to cut the ribbon and officially open the park, the skies calmed and the sun shone over the camp.
And Kyle wept. I'd never seen that from him before. He always stood tall, proud, strong, bolstered by the shield of a black No. 45 hat, just like the ones Adam always wore. But as he introduced the team, Adam's team, emotion took over.
"This will always be Adam's team to me, but more importantly, now you guys become Adam's team," Kyle said. "You guys and all the campers that come here, I hope take a little bit of Adam's smile when you leave here. And it's because of this group. This was his original team. He loved these guys. I thank you guys with all my heart."
The words spoken by North Carolina Governor Mike Easley on Tuesday will long ring true:
"Through this camp experience, children will receive the medication of laughter, the opportunity just to have fun and be a kid. Our children do not deserve to have their lives cut short with pain and challenges associated with life-threatening and chronic diseases, but they do.
"Victory Junction Gang Camp eases that pain, and replaces it for some brief period of time with happiness and joy. Because of you, these children will be given the wonderful opportunity to enjoy the race and take the victory lap of life."
Undoubtedly, those will be the greatest victory laps of Kyle Petty's life, as well.
Nascar Ping. (do you have a Nascar ping list?)
I've donated whatever I can to this effort and I plan to continue to do so. The Pettys have given so much back to others through their own pain. These folks are amazing.
If any of you are looking for a charity to support this is definately a worthwhile one.
NASCAR Are the Good Guys!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.