Hello! We are excited to share with you some photos of the Race for Hope! We cannot thank everyone enough who attended, raced, volunteered, sponsored, bought raffle tickets, and bid on silent auctions! We are forever grateful! In the end, we were able to raise just over $10,000 for the Depew family. This is a tangible way YOU were able to help pay the high cost of his cancer treatment, and help his mother stay home and care for him, since his chemo keeps him from attending daycare. Amazing!!
How cute is this photo? It looks like he's standing next to his RC car.
This event WOULD NOT have been possible without the generous business sponsors and raffle donors! Thank you to:
Pro Citrus Network
KRC Safety
KRC Graphics
Sequoia Beverage Co.
Suncrest Bank
Bravo Farms
Madera Hobbies
Exeter Hobbies
Volmer Excavation
Zenbot CNC
The Planing Mill
Praxxair of Tulare
Green Thumb Landscaping
Valley Tire and Brake
Empire Supply
Rueben's Home Service
Smokehouse of Kingsburg
Ron Ribeiro of Lawrence Tractor (Hanford)
Valley Oak A/C
Willits Pump
Greg Gonzales Painting
Amigos
MonkeyPaintz
Cycle Art
The Smokehouse (Kingsburg)
Hopefully I didn't miss anyone! We also had individuals donate to our prizes, prepare our tri-tip (Thanks, Gary Colburn!!), and provide the volunteers with snacks and drinks throughout their shifts. We are SO thankful for each and every person that helped in any way. People even bought extra gift cards and brought them to me to add to the raffle prizes on the day of the race!
Brandon sporting his Camden's Crew shirt while announcing a race.
Whenever we give away a RC car kit, it always ends up being a child who wins it. It's always SO exciting to see their faces when you draw the ticket and announce THEIR name. SO awesome! This was his first time at our track and he walked away with a brand new car!
Since this was the Race for Hope, I had this idea a couple of months ago. We wanted to give Camden (and his family) a brand new RC car, with his picture on the body, and the name of the race. To Brandon and I, this car represents the
hope. The hope that we all have, that he will get to keep his vision when this is all said and done. He has a long road ahead of him, one that his family will need to take one step at a time. It can be overwhelming to think of how many years he will have to be treated/checked for retinoblastoma. One day at a time is very important, but we believe in the end, he will have retained at least a portion of his vision, if not all. At first I thought, maybe I'm silly for wanting to give a car to a baby, but then as we talked about it, we realized....
this represents the hope. Madera Hobbies was extremely generous to give us this valuable car, Cycle Art gave us the body, MonkeyPaintz painted the body, and KRC Graphics added his photo and race info. Such an example of how everyone pitches in to help! Years from now, when he is driving this car, he will know the love that was shown to him on March 29th, 2014!
Madera Hobbies also GAVE AWAY 12 RC helicopters to the first 12 registered racers. The other racers received a free hat, donated by Sequoia Beverage.
A few of our wonderful volunteers!
All of the kids made new friends and played well together all day! Two of these girls even raced in the kids class!
Chemo can damage hearing, so Camden got to wear his CUTE hearing protection during the loud nitro races. Thankfully he didn't have to wear them all day, because the electric cars are much quieter.
Camden's story was posted on the driver's stand for all to see how he got diagnosed.
The family sold shirts, and it was so touching that a lot of racers bought them and went and put them on right away! There were gray shirts all over the place!
We
literally had a mountain of prizes donated! Lots of prizes helped us get a larger crowd, so thank you to all who donated!
Brandon giving the drivers their instructions.
More of our fabulous volunteers!
This girl. She and I have been "family" since I was a year old. She's the reason I met my husband. We were roommates before we both got married. She was my maid of honor. And now her son is fighting cancer. It kind of leaves you not knowing what to do or how you could possibly help. I'm thankful we had this opportunity to do something that will really help them. Their focus needs to be on him, not his pharmacy bills.
Camden taking a morning nap on his Nana's lap.
Sequoia Beverage was generous enough to donate a lot of LARGE items to hold a silent auction. This ended up bringing in a lot of money that we wouldn't have, had they not done this for us! The owner even put in a big bid, and then re-donated the item to the next highest bidder, so not only did they get his bid, but the second highest bid as well! We just couldn't believe it!
I announced that we raised $9,700, but at the end of the day, after adding in the shirt sales and the rest of the food sales, it totaled $10,000! I was also able to share the warning sign of retinoblastoma with the entire crowd. Know the glow. See red, or see a doctor. It's fairly simple. It is not standard medical practice to check the eyes until 6 months of age. You should ASK your doctor before you leave the hospital, and at every well-baby check up to do a "red eye check". It takes about 30 seconds for the doctor to turn off the room lights, and shine their light into the baby's eyes. In flash photos, if the pupils do not glow red, they need to see a doctor. Glowing white pupils doesn't always mean cancer, but is a sign of a few different eye diseases that need immediate attention. The only reason Camden was diagnosed is because his parents wouldn't take no for an answer. They pushed the issue for an eye exam, and that's why he was diagnosed. Know the glow! Only ONE person in the whole crowd had ever heard of retinoblastoma. After I explained it all, I told them that now
they can go and tell everyone
they know. That's how education works!
Brandon presenting the family with Camden's car.
On behalf of this beautiful family, Brandon, and I, THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF OUR HEARTS!
