Posted on 10/29/2005 4:57:25 AM PDT by rhema
Urged on by roaring fans, 43 NASCAR rivals flashed around the flat oval at Virginia's Martinsville Speedway in the Subway 500. Drivers braked at the track's notorious wreck-maker turns, then screamed down the straightaways at speeds of up to 126 mph. Before packed grandstands and a national television audience, each car doubled as a speeding billboard emblazoned with logos like Home Depot, Motorcraft, Interstate Batteries, and . . . Care-Net Pregnancy Centers?
Hardly your standard manly racecar ad. But Joe Gibbs Racing Team driver Bobby Labonte indeed circled the track on Oct. 23 in the Interstate Batteries car, its entire fluorescent green hood declaring in huge letters: "CARE-NET and Interstate Batteries. Charged for Life!"
Mr. Labonte finished fourth, his best showing since May in NASCAR's top-tier Nextel Cup Series. But Interstate and Care-Net are hoping women and children will finish first as a result of their collaborative fundraising campaign.
Care-Net, a Christian group based in Sterling, Va., supports a network of 900 pregnancy centers that offer women facing unplanned pregnancies compassionate alternatives to abortion. Dallas-based Interstate Batteries, more than a half-century old, is a distinctly Christian firm whose mission statement begins, "To glorify God."
How did a tenderhearted outreach to women wind up partnering with a company that evokes images of leather-jacketed men wielding power tools? Through Interstate's corporate vice president for marketing Dennis Brown.
"Interstate, separately from Care-Net, had developed a fundraising program for schools and other organizations," said Mr. Brown, a Care-Net board member since 2004. "As I became more aware of the needs of crisis pregnancy centers, I thought this would be a way that Interstate might be able to get involved."
The "Charged for Life" campaign resembles seasonal school and charity fundraisers in which supporters canvas neighborhoods or co-workers, taking orders for magazines, wrapping paper, or gift items. But in this case, the products they sell are batteries. (Interstate sells a wide range of products, including AAA, AA, and 9-volt batteries, not just car batteries.) Care-Net CPCs participate in the year-round campaign individually, with 50 percent of the proceeds from each sale going directly to that center. A small portion of the remaining half of the sale price will benefit Option Line, a national 24-hour call center for women facing crisis pregnancies.
Interstate kicked off "Charged for Life" with both a $50,000 initial donation and the advertising space on the hood of its company-sponsored racecar at Martinsville—marketing real estate worth $250,000. A splashy debut to be sure. But beyond the glitz of NASCAR, Dennis Brown has personal reasons for pinning high hopes on the campaign: When his daughter, Jackie, was 18, she became pregnant out of wedlock.
Mr. Brown isn't sure whether Jackie seriously considered abortion. But in the end she decided to carry the child to term and place him for adoption. That was 16 years ago. Now a married mother of three, Jackie last month traveled to Nashville with Mr. Brown for Care-Net's annual conference. After they arrived, father and daughter sat together in their hotel, paging through a memory book she'd put together. Page after page chronicled birthdays, Christmases, school plays, Halloweens—the entire boyhood—of Alex, now 15, the son for whom she had chosen life.
"It was unbelievable," said Mr. Brown, who had never seen the book before that moment. "That was my grandson. It was the most profound experience I've had, to be able to see his life come together like that." Alex's was a "closed" adoption, meaning that Jackie has no contact with Alex and he doesn't know her identity. But as a gift to her, the adoptive parents had provided her with mementos of his growing up.
Mr. Brown's involvement with Care-Net has given him an opportunity to "be more of an adoption advocate," he said, noting that the group's emphasis on life gives more women the opportunity to make the same decision Jackie made. "It's not the kind of thing I wore on my sleeve before, but working with Care-Net allows me to talk about compassionate caring for women, and about adoption as a viable choice."
That's great to hear! Instead of trying to figure out who to boycott, we can find good guys to support. Best of all... they make GREAT car batteries! Always top rated, I run them in my cars with zero problems.
Good news.
Wow. And double Wow! And a Praise the Lord!
Very familiar with Care-Net, a terrific organization.The missus and I have been on the front lines of their work for many years. I don't say that to be boastful--please don't misunderstand-- but I personally know of their work with pregnancy centers, and have met, over the years, many of the folks in the national office.
I have seen Interstate batteries advertised for years and didn't know their Christian heritage. Now I won't buy any other car battery, or other batteries if I can find them locally.
This has to put the fear (of God) into the liberals! NASCAR fans are clearly very conservative and given the fact that they put 100,000+ butts into the seats every week demonstrates the power of good, wholesome fun. No other American sport can make that claim.</P>
What a wonderful story, thank you for posting this!
Care-Net is a great group.... They also provide counseling to women who've fallen for the lie that an abortion will make it all better and suffer the consequences.
They help give hope to so many who feel hopeless!
("Denny Crane: Gun Control? For Communists. She's a liberal. Can't hunt.")
Interstate makes an EXCELLENT car battery. The only battery that I have found to survive summers in Houston.
And this is yet another reason to keep buying their batteries.
Excellent!! My wife serves on the board of directors at our local CNPC. I have forwarded the article to the Executive Director and Chairman of the Board. Thanks for posting it.
WOW! This is truly awesome. I work at a crisis pregnancy center here in south-central Kentucky. I am so excited to see this! God bless that entire crew!
Agreed. Next time I need batteries; it will be Interstate.
ping
Good news ping!
WOW! FANTASTIC!! GOD BLESS THEM!!!
Yes, it is a "good news" story. And, auto racing in America is the number one spectator sport so the exposure will be very good.
Ping.
You know it! :o)
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