The Petty family continues to turn personal tragedy into smiles on the faces ofyoungsters with severe and life threatening illnesses by building a second Victory Junction Camp in Kansas City. Every single person who helps in any way to provide a little fun for these youngsters is pretty special and I think we all know that the Petty family is special. The following story appeared in this week's Kansas City Star :
Pettys pick Wyandotte County as home of Victory Junction
By RANDY COVITZ
The Kansas City Star
NASCARs Kyle and Pattie Petty have selected a new Wyandotte County site for their Victory Junction Midwest camp for chronically ill children.
The camp will be built on 65 acres off Interstate 70 just east of Kansas Speedway at about 94th Street.
We believe we have found the perfect property for our camp in Kansas City, Pattie Petty, CEO and co-founder of the original Victory Junction camp in Randleman, N.C., said on Wednesday.
This is the second site the Pettys have selected for the camp, which is expected to cost $35 million. The camp is free of charge for children ages 6 to 16 who have severe or life-threatening illnesses.
The first site, also in western Wyandotte County, turned out to have some environmental issues after ground was broken, making it cost-prohibitive to build a hospital, which is essential to the camp.
That development, plus the subsequent economic downturn, slowed the momentum for Victory Junction Midwest. But now, with a site so accessible on I-70, the project which is dependent on donations has been revived.
The Pettys hope to have at least part of the camp open by 2014. The land must be re-zoned for a special-use permit and more money needs to be raised.
We have many different groups who have shown significant interest in contributing to camp, but they prefer to know the exact location of camp prior to making a final commitment, said John McKee, president of Victory Junction. We believe the acquisition of this property will build momentum from a fundraising perspective within a community that has already proven to be very generous.
The Pettys founded the original Victory Junction Camp on 72 acres outside Randleman in 2004 in honor of their son, Adam, a NASCAR driver who died in a crash at Loudon, N.H., in 2000.
The land was donated by Kyle Pettys father, NASCAR legend Richard The King Petty, and the camp has a distinctive auto-racing theme. Most of the facilities were donated by drivers and race teams.
The hospital, for instance, is called The Body Shop; the dining hall is The Fuel Stop.
If you picked up the North Carolina camp and moved it here, Pattie Petty said, you would see the Kurt Busch Superdome (indoor kickball on a rubberized baseball layout), you would see the Jimmie Johnson Victory (Bowling) Lanes, you would see Michael Waltrips gymnasium.
The cost of sending a child to camp is valued at $2,500, but all expenses, including transportation to and from the camp, are free for campers and their families.
When as many as 3,500 campers and their families began descending on the original Victory Junction each year, the Pettys began looking for a site to accommodate those who came from beyond the southeastern part of the country. Since opening in 2004, Victory Junction has welcomed more than 15,000 children and families from all 50 states and four countries.
Through Kyle Pettys association with Sprint which sponsored his Sprint Cup car as well as Adams he chose Kansas City in 2007 as the location for a second camp.
Pattie Petty emphasized the camp in Kansas does not need to be NASCAR-themed. The Chiefs Ambassadors an alumni group of former Chiefs players have expressed an interest in raising funds for the camp.
I hope everyone in NASCAR gets involved in it, but I want this to be a Midwest-themed park, said Petty, who has been spending weeks at a time in Kansas City working on the project.
KBS Constructors of Topeka had committed to build a $1.5 million, 7,800-square foot medical facility free of charge. But Dan Foltz, president of the company, has said that if someone else wants to build and put their name on the hospital, he would build another facility, perhaps the dining hall or gymnasium.
Johnny Morris, founder of Springfield-based Bass Pro Shops, has committed $1 million to build the Catch, Kiss and Release Fishing Marina.
Busch, who underwrote the $1 million Kurt Busch Superdome in Randleman, enjoys every trip he makes to Victory Junction.
Its such a heart-warming experience to see the kids interact with each other, Busch said. Not a lot of them can enjoy normal sports, and when they do it with kids that have the same problems they have, it makes them feel comfortable. And the best part about it is the families that are there to see their kids.
Read more: http://www.kansascity.com/2011/06/01/2920371/camp-for-ill-children-will-locate.html#ixzz1OK8drBtr
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updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM