RAACE Out To Spread The Word

RAACE Out To Spread The Word

By Brad Vores February 29, 2008

For three years, the RAACE Foundation has been actively involved in motorsports.

But many have been skeptical about what RAACE-Race Against the Abuse of Children Everywhere-is all about.

When the organization started four seasons ago, race fans and other folks in the sport had their own idea of what RAACE was all about. Most of them were wrong, way wrong to be exact.

Stevie Smith has carried the purple and yellow colors of the RAACE Foundation since its beginning and he along with his father Steve have done their part of trying to spread the word of what RAACE is really all about. It wasn’t about their sprint car team, but it was about children, sexually abused children to be exact.

Over the years, the RAACE Foundation has been out spreading the word at area tracks, the Knoxville Nationals and at many events throughout the Baltimore region. Fans have been curious but in the three years of existence, the organization is making big steps in awareness through the motorsports arena.

It all started four years ago when Baltimore, Maryland business owner Ken Smith wanted to do something more to spread the word about child sexual abuse after becoming involved with St. Vincent’s Center in Timonium, Maryland. Smith spent many hours and gave Christmas gifts and had cookouts and other events for the kids at the center. St. Vincents houses 100 of the worst cases of children who have been sexually abused.

“The people at the center told Ken that they had everything they needed as far as facilities and other things but they needed the word spread so he thought with a new business, he could figure out a way to raise awareness about child sexual abuse and they may be able to get in front of the problem and really have a chance at making a difference,” said Brad Brickel, Jr., Outreach Director for RAACE.

The statistics are sad. One out of three girls and one out of seven boys are sexually abused before the age of 18. There are 43 million sexual abuse survivors in our country. The real problem is that only one out of 10 children talk about it.

“When you have those kind of statistics, if you can get two out of ten or three out of ten to start to talk, you begin to take that silence factor away,” said Brickel. “The target average is 7 to 9 year olds and when you are that age, you are very impressionable and you don’t understand that is going on around you. Plus it’s generally someone they trust who abuses them. Ninety percent of the cases are done inside that family trust envelope. It’s not the same thing you see on TV and in the news. It’s aunts, uncles, babysitters, coaches, peers and when you operate in that trust envelope, they really have the opportunity to keep it quiet.”

That’s where the RAACE foundation hopes to keep playing a bigger part in the fight against child abuse but educating the parents and people around the children. They hope they can enable them to be able to talk about abuse just like they do when they talk about drugs and so forth.

The Smith Racing team donated their race car to help spread the word for RAACE and have been an instrumental part in the success of the organization in just three years. Smith won several races last season and was able to give RAACE more exposure by doing so. By winning, fans are curious and begin to ask questions, check out the website, read literature and so forth which is all about making them aware of the growing problem.

Other teams and drivers have come on board with RAACE during the past two years and more will do so this year, by donating their race cars for the cause and helping to spread the word. In return, RAACE will hopefully be able to help teams secure sponsors for their team because of being involved with the organizational.

“There have been a lot of misconceptions out there that people feel the money is raised for the race teams and that’s simply not true,” Brickel stated. “We are a 501C3 organization governed by the US Government just like the Autism society, the Make A Wish Foundation and United Way. We cannot do anything that benefits anybody or we’d lose our 501C3 tax status. But one thing we can do is advertise and promote the race teams because that is advertising promoting the RAACE Foundation.”

Brickel said that being involved with the RAACE Foundation can bring great benefits for race teams.

“When you start racing for a cause, going out trying to raise awareness for child sexual abuse, teams can certainly go out and get sponsors that might be interested in working with the foundation and it reflects good on them as well,” he added. “Obviously the RAACE Foundation has dominance on the cars and hopefully the sponsors understand what they are trying to do and in the long run it benefits everyone involved.”

For 2008, the Foundation is promoting its Race to Two Million, where 60 percent of the money will go back into the local community that it was raised in for child sexual abuse working with schools, PTA’s and advocacy programs. The other 40 percent goes to the RAACE Foundation to continue going out to race tracks and other events to continue raising awareness by handing out literature and educating people.

New for this season will be a membership that race fans and drivers can join the foundation and be able to reap some benefits, especially the driver.
“We’ve put together top drivers in the sport to basically lend their name to the organization to support it,” Brickel said. “The board is non-voting so they really don’t have to be involved that much but support the foundation and be able to bring their own fan base and hopefully their fans will pay attention and we can educate them on what is going on. We’d like to get this out to everyone and make this a racing charity.”

Daryn Pittman is on board with RAACE as a Difference Maker and many drivers are joining to helping promote the good things that RAACE is all about.
As far as the main RAACE team, Stevie Smith will be hitting the road more in 2008 and running all across the country promoting the organization. Smith will return to California for the Gold Cup this season as well as competing in a large portion of World of Outlaws racing. Smith will compete in Central Pennsylvania, including the Keystone Cup and the Cindy Rowe Auto Glass Pennsylvania Speedweek and some other shows. Smith is scheduled to be in competition this weekend at Lincoln and Williams Grove.

RAACE will soon have an audited financial report from 2007 online for fans to view and see where the money is spent.

Race fans are the most loyal of any sports fan in the world. Take a minute to check out their website at www.raace.org and become a member of the organization and help spread the world. It could help someone in your own family.

OPENERS ON SCHEDULE
Barring any measurable snow tonight, weekend openers at Lincoln, Hagerstown and Williams Grove Speedway’s are all planning on kicking off the season this weekend.

Lincoln will be in action with the Icebreaker 30 for 410 Sprints on Saturday at 2pm while the late models and big block modifieds are on the schedule at Hagerstown beginning at 1:30pm.

Williams Grove will bring an end to the racing weekend with a 2pm start on Sunday afternoon with a 410 Sprint program.

“We are excited to open on Sunday for the 2008 racing season,” said Justin Loh, Williams Grove track manager. “With all of the improvements we’ve made, we are hoping weather cooperates with us so that we can put a great opening day show on.”

The Grove added new clay during the offseason and added new aluminum bleachers around the facility. New front stretch Musco lighting with be featured during the first Friday night race next month.

Check the speedway websites or call before heading out this weekend in case of weather issues.

Hagerstown has postponed its Saturday opener until Sunday afternoon March 2.