Indianapolis, IN (October 6, 2011) - Although the season
comes to an end next week in Las
Vegas, the final race will provide a thrill for one child
that will last a lifetime. For the 2011 IZOD IndyCar Series
season, Dreyer & Reinbold Racing joined forces with
Racing For Kids to sponsor a special helmet design contest
offered to patients and family members of patients at the hospitals
that the Dreyer & Reinbold Racing drivers visited this
year.
Racing For Kids is near and dear to Dreyer & Reinbold
Racing's heart. Team co-owner, Robbie Buhl, has served as Racing For Kids
national spokesman since its inception in 1989. This season RFK not
only celebrated 22 years of service, but 12 years of affiliation
with DRR as well.
Founded in Detroit in 1989, Racing for Kids is
designed to use the increasing popularity of motorsports to focus
public attention and funding on the health care needs of
children. Racing for Kids representatives have visited more
than 24,000 young patients in nearly 500 hospitals in
the United States, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia and Brazil. In addition, nearly $5.5
million has been raised through donations and specific fund raising
events for children's hospitals and child health institutions and
causes across the country.
The hospital visits are the
heart of the program and, as they continue to show their support
for the organization, DRR drivers along with a host of IndyCar,
Firestone Indy Lights Series and Star Mazda Series
drivers, have actively participated in the Racing For Kids visits
at Children's Hospitals where they raced this season. Both DRR
and RFK found this season to be a great opportunity to offer
something special for the patients and their families on these
visits.
Hospitals were given the helmet
design contest rules and templates prior to each
visit. After the visit the drivers selected the design
he or she liked "best." Each hospital had a winner and those
semi-finalist designs were posted on www.IndyCar.com for online voting to
select the final winner.
"The many kids who participated
obviously spent a lot of time and effort on their creations, " said
Pat Wright, Executive Director for Racing For Kids. "We were amazed
at the broad range of colorful and often intricate designs. We were
also impressed by the large voter turnout on
IndyCar.com."
The winning designs from the
hospitals that participated, which includedAll Children's Hospital in St.
Petersburg, Fla.;Children's Hospital in Birmingham,
Ala.;Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis,
Ind.;Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee,
Wis.; Blank
Children's Hospital inDes
Moines, Ohio;Akron Children's Hospital in
Akron, Ohio., and North Valley
School in Santa Rosa, Calif., were available online for two
days for fans to vote on their favorite. More than 1,200 votes were
cast during the online competition.
Voting concluded on Tuesday, September 27 and the winner
chosen was Sheyenne
from Akron Children's
Hospital. Her design will be featured on Ana
Beatriz's helmet for the IZOD INDYCAR World Championships
presented by Honda on October
16 at Las Vegas Motor
Speedway. Sheyenne will receive a mini helmet in the same
design as well as some racing gear from the team and
Beatriz.
"I think this was a great
opportunity. It's always a good experience for me to make the
Racing For Kids visits, but to give the kids a chance to do
something different and to take their mind off of what they are
going through was really special. I liked all of the designs,
there were some really creative ones, but I'm thrilled to wear
Sheyenne's helmet design during the race", commented
Beatriz.
At the conclusion of the final
race, Ana Beatriz's helmet will go up for auction on eBay.com. All proceeds will go to
Racing For Kids.
Information about the online
auction will be posted on both the Racing For Kids and the Dreyer
& Reinbold Racing websites after the race in Las Vegas. Please
visit www.racingforkids.org
or www.dreyerreinboldracing.com.
