FORT WORTH, Texas (July 22, 2013) – Texas Motor Speedway’s “Speeding To Help” program will undertake four volunteer projects, including two involving cities that continue to rebuild from tragedies that struck their communities earlier this year, for four consecutive weeks beginning Wednesday.
“Speeding To Help” will have a focus on two rebuilding communities – Granbury from an EF4 tornado in May and West from a fertilizer plant explosion in April – that are not receiving federal funding and remain in need of volunteer help to assist in their efforts. Various numbers of the Texas Motor Speedway staff will serve as volunteers on the respective special projects that the group will undertake each week beginning Wednesday and concluding Aug. 16.
In addition to the visits to Granbury and West, the speedway staff will volunteer their services to assist Mission Arlington and the Humane Society of Fort Worth as the program embarks on its sixth year.
Here’s a glimpse at the upcoming “Speeding To Help” events (media alerts with full details will be sent as each event nears):
Wednesday, July 24 (9 a.m.-1 p.m.) – Mission Arlington, 210 W. South St., Arlington. Texas Motor Speedway will send a group of volunteers to assist with the administration of food, clothes, school supplies, household items and furniture to those less fortunate. The team will help in accepting the various donations as well as the distribution of items to the less fortunate during their visit. Since being formed in 1986, Mission Arlington has been known in the community as a center where less fortunate people can receive help through a variety of their services. The Christian social agency provides services ranging from emergency assistance with food, furniture and other household items to dental and medical clinics at no charge to people in the community who can’t afford to do so at their own expense.
Wednesday, July 31 (8 a.m.-1:30 p.m.) – The United Methodist Committee on Relief rebuilding project, 3701 Sundown Trail, Granbury. Texas Motor Speedway will provide a dozen employees, including several from their Operations Department, and equipment to assist with carpentry work involving installing window and door frames on a new modular home for a family in the Ranchos Brazos community that was struck by a deadly EF4 tornado on May 15. The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to alleviating human suffering around the globe and their work reaches people in more than 80 countries. The UMCOR quickly responded to the needs of the Rancho Brazos community as the organization sent emergency funds the day after the tornado hit. Since that time, the organization has continued to help rebuild the community and sent 26 early-response team members that assisted with repairs and clean up. UMCOR’s goal for the Rancho Brazos community is to fully restore the area and ensure that it is back to what it was before the tornado.
Tuesday, Aug. 6 (all day) – West Long-Term Recovery Project, various areas, West. Texas Motor Speedway will send a large group of volunteers to assist in the West Long-Term Recovery project. The group will be assigned a variety of projects within the community to assist residents who still are recovering from the fertilizer plant explosion that occurred on April 17. The explosion, caused by ammonium nitrate, killed 15, injured more than 200 and damaged more than 150 nearby homes and buildings in the small town 18 miles north of Waco.
Friday, Aug., 16 (9 a.m.-1 p.m.) – Humane Society of North Texas, 1840 E. Lancaster Ave., Fort Worth. Approximately a dozen Texas Motor Speedway employees will visit the facility to assist the staff with the bathing, grooming, exercising and socializing of dogs and cats that are housed at the Fort Worth facility. The group also will help beautify the grounds by planting flowers in the flower boxes outside the entrance of the facility. The Humane Society of North Texas provides for the well-being of animals that are abandoned, injured, mistreated or otherwise in need. The HSNT also acts as an advocate on behalf of all animals and ensures their legal, moral and ethical consideration and protection.
In the past five years, Texas Motor Speedway’s “Speeding To Help” program has provided assistance to 20 organizations throughout the various counties in the Metroplex.
Those organizations are the United Service Organization (USO) of Dallas/Fort Worth; Children’s Medical Center in Dallas; Habitat for Humanity; Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth; Homes For Our Troops; United Community Centers, Inc. of Fort Worth; North Texas Food Bank; Dallas Arboretum; Christian Community Action; Fort Worth Parks and Recreation; Rosemont 6th Grade School of Fort Worth; 6 Stones Mission Network; Community Powered Revitalization; Dallas Life Homeless Shelter; Clara Love Elementary School; Tarrant Area Food Bank; Feed The Children; Dallas Zoo; Butler Branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Fort Worth; and the Northwest Independent School District.
For more information, contact the Texas Motor Speedway Media Relations Department at (817) 215-8520 or pr@texasmotorspeedway.com.
