GROSSE POINTE FARMS, MI -- (MARKET WIRE) -- January 25, 2007 -- Racing For Kids®, a non-profit organization founded here in 1989 to use motorsports to focus public attention and funding on the healthcare needs of children, visited some 2,000 sick kids at 24 hospitals around the United States and in Japan in 2006, and donated more than $200,000 to children's hospitals across the country, raising its total annual donations to close to $5 million.
J. Patrick Wright, RFK executive director, Robbie Buhl, former Indy Racing League Driver and RFK national spokesman, and Dr. Bill Pinsky, New Orleans Physician and RFK founder, jointly announced the 2006 results.
According to Wright, hospital visits were made by professional racecar drivers from the IndyCar® Series, the Indy Pro Series, the Star Mazda Racing Series as well as the Toyota Grand Prix celebrity challenge drivers. "The visits brought smiles to the faces of sick children, whose lives had been interrupted with illness or surgery," Wright said. "Often our driver's visit is the best memory a child has of their hospital stay."
Racing For Kids®, which holds a variety of fund raisers during the year, is supported by donations from Humana, Inc., Toyota Motor Sales USA and the Long Beach Grand Prix, sanofi-aventis, Bridgestone Firestone Trust Fund, TranSystems, Benson Ford, Jr., great-grandson of Ford Motor Founder Henry Ford, and others.
Since 1989, Racing For Kids® has disbursed nearly $5 million in cash grants and in-kind gifts. In 2006 RFK visited and made donations to children's hospitals in California, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin and Japan.
Contact Information: CONTACT: WRIGHT ENTERPRISES, INC. Kathleen Conway 313-882-6430 or Ron Hingst 734-662-5444