Santa smiles after lighting the tree at the Speedway Children's Charities Tree Lighting and Grant Ceremony at Texas Motor Speedway on December 2, 2014 in Fort Worth, Texas. (Photo by Sarah Glenn/Getty Images for Texas Motor Speedway)
release from Texas Motor Speedway
The season of giving came early for five North Texas non-profitbrorganizations Tuesday evening as Speedway Children's Charities-Texas Chapterbrushered in the holiday season by awarding more than $300,000 in funds,brincluding the $150,000 Founder's Grant to the Tarrant Area Food Bank, duringbrits annual Christmas Tree Lighting and Grant Ceremony at Texas Motor Speedway.
Speedway Children's Charities surpassed more than $9.7brmillion in grants distributed since its inception in 1997 with this year'sbrceremony that was anchored by the special Founder's Grant for organizationsbrseeking to fund major capital improvement projects. The Founder's Grant,brestablished in 2009, will allow the Tarrant Area Food Bank to expand its mobilebrpantry program by utilizing the grant to purchase a 53-foot refrigeratedbrtractor trailer for food distributions. The vehicle will be able to increasebrits distribution of nutritious, perishable food to underserved children throughbrthis expansion. The grant will allow the Tarrant Area Food Bank to serve morebrthan 48,000 additional children.
The organization currently services 300 partner agenciesbracross 13 North Texas counties and provides food to 47,000 households andbrserves more than 300,000 meals each month.
“We are very grateful for this generous gift,” Tarrant AreabrFood Bank Executive Director Bo Soderbergh said. “It will allow Tarrant AreabrFood Bank to distribute fresh foods in communities where people are strugglingbrwith hunger and do not have ready access to fresh produce, dairy products andbrmeats.”
Speedway Children's Charities presented four otherbrorganizations with Partner Grants ranging from $10,000 to $20,000. Thebrrecipients of this year's Partner Grants were Camp iHope of Plano ($10,125),brKiwanis Children's Clinic of Denton ($13,380), Ronald McDonald House of FortbrWorth ($15,000) and PediPlace of Lewisville and Dallas ($20,000).
Camp iHope, which serves children and their siblings sevenbrto 16 years of age with any type of cancer diagnosis at Medical City Children'sbrHospital, provides these patients with the opportunity to enjoy the outdoor adventuresbrof summertime camp at no cost to their families. The grant will go directly tobrfunding more children for the program.
The Kiwanis Children's Clinic of Denton provides freebrmedical and dental for disadvantaged families and these funds will be used tobrprovide prescriptions for children and expand the type of procedures they canbroffer to children.
The Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth will fund its “Mealsbrfrom the Heart” program at Cook Children's. The program feeds the childrenbrsituated in the pediatric intensive care unit, along with their families, andbrmore than 3,600 children will be served through this grant.
PediPlace, with locations in Lewisville and Dallas, willbrprovide necessary prescription drugs and lab tests for low-income, uninsured children.brThe grant will allow the two branches to serve more than 800 children.
With funds raised during the Silver Dollar at the Ranchbrbenefit in May, Speedway Children's Charities also awarded Medical CitybrChildren's Hospital (Collin County), Children's Health (Dallas), CookbrChildren's of Fort Worth and Cook Children's of Denton each with a check forbr$4,400 that will be used for various pediatric cancer initiatives.
The evening was marked by the official lighting of “ThebrTallest Living Christmas Tree In The Metroplex” presented by Ben E. KeithbrFoods. The 61-foot Douglas fir and its more than 10,000 LED lights werebrilluminated with the help of the North Pole's famous resident, Santa Claus, whobrarrived in a refrigerated truck filled with snow and some of his helpers in thebrform of the “The Great American Sweethearts.”
KXAS-NBC 5 Sports Director Newy Scruggs was a special guestbrand provided the countdown to the lighting while his KXAS colleague, ChiefbrMeteorologist David Finfrock, joined Santa, Texas Motor Speedway PresidentbrEddie Gossage and a child from a SCC partner organization, FitWorth, to flipbrthe giant light switch for the ceremony.
The Christmas festivities also included carols sung by thebrChisolm Trail Middle School Varsity Combined Choir and Speedway Children'sbrCharities-Texas Chapter President Scott Murray presenting the Dick Cerza Awardbrand President's Award during the program. Mark and Sheri Beatty of Red Hotbr& Blue earned the Dick Cerza Award for their continued support of thebrcharity and auctioneer Mike Trent received the President's Award as thebrorganization's top volunteer.
The evening of giving culminated with the distribution ofbr100 bikes and helmets to Fort Worth-area children representing FitWorth, FirebrStation Community Center and Diamond Hill Elementary School. The earlybrChristmas presents were compliments of SCC board members Chalmer and KarenbrMcWilliams and George and Linda Campbell, who purchased and donated the bikesbrand helmets for the children.
Speedway Children's Charities-Texas Chapter has played abrsignificant role in the lives of children in the four North Texas counties itbrserves – Collin, Dallas, Denton and Tarrant. To illustrate the impact, onebrcould fill the grandstands of Texas Motor Speedway 16 times with the number ofbrchildren that have benefited from the charity's support. The funds raised tobrhelp benefit Speedway Children's Charities -Texas Chapter are generated throughbrspecial events held throughout the year at Texas Motor Speedway.
To learn more about the Texas Chapter of Speedway Children'sbrCharities, please visit www.scctexas.org.
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