My husband is a huge NASCAR fan, and during race season, our house comes to a halt on Sunday afternoons, and occasionally Saturday nights. Today was the “granddaddy” of all races, the Daytona 500. I know not to schedule family events on this day.



By osmosis, and continued exposure to the races, I have come to know the names of most of the racers. I could even name quite a few car numbers and sponsors.

Even if you’ve never watched a NASCAR race, you have surely heard some of the big names in racing. Dale Earnhardt springs to mind, as well as the Petty family. Richard and Kyle Petty earned their names in racing, as well as Adam Petty. Adam was killed in a crash on the track a few years ago. His family started the Victory Junction Gang Camp in his honor.

The Victory Junction Gang Camp is a wonderful organization. Here is the description of the camp from their website.

The Victory Junction Gang Camp enriches the lives of children with chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses by providing life-changing camping experiences that are exciting, fun, and empowering, in a safe and medically sound environment.

Victory Junction is a year-round camp that serves children, ages 7 to 15, with a variety of health issues. During the summer we offer week long disease specific sessions with up to 125 kids per session. During the Fall, Winter and Spring we offer family weekends with up to 32 families per weekend.

The children we serve may have any of the following health issues:
arthritis, asthma, cancer, epilepsy, hemophilia, immunology deficiencies/HIV, sickle cell disease, spina bifida, gastrointestinal disease, heart disease, kidney disease, liver disease,
neurological disease, skin disease, burn survivors, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, autism, craniofacial anomalies, physical disabilities, kids on vents, or transverse myelitis .

As far as I can remember, all of this is provided at no charge to the families. All of the racers in the association are active participants and major contributors to the camp. In addition, when the Attachment Disorder Network was sponsoring our first conference with a silent auction, we solicited donations from the racers. Several of them stepped up and willingly donated wonderful items to an unknown organization.

Whether you are a racing fan or not, you can admire what these drivers are doing, and how they are giving back to the community. They deserve our support for that alone.

If you have a child that falls into one of these catagories, send in an application.