I think the food bank is a good idea, and if am remebering things right deli has collected food befor, think it was for king of the hill enterance.  If someone wanted to organize a trip to the food bank to help them i will be all for it if i am in town. 

My pickup is availible for driving donations down anytime.

Fortunately they were there as I found myself a customer of the Food Bank many years ago as well. I'm not against the big charities but we have so many families in trouble in the the London area. It's no secret this area has been killed by a poor economy and the trickle down effect has driven the bottom even deeper. Listening to FM96 (A track partner?) You can tell the food bank was in full on panic mode. Anyway like I said before it should be an easy program to operate and the returns to the community would be direct and have a huge impact.

I had made several suggestions and quite frankly I thought they were good ones, how ever the reception was not a good one.  If you ask for involvement then you might want to be prepared to accept it or at least sit down with people and genuinely discuss ideas.

I'm not certain to whom or where the suggestions were sent or why this would have been road blocked.  I would sincerely hope I’ve never given off a bad reception to a charity idea.  I feel I have been fairly clear what my position is on the matter of genuine discussion through participation on the boards.  In this season of giving, let’s see where this takes us:

On the Charity Side

I think there is a misconception about charity involvement at the track and our level of charity commitment.  Certainly there is some track modesty at work.  It seems we have not gone out of our way to show off our charity programs.  Charity was something I was always taught to do “because it is right”, not as something to “looks good” - - perhaps that works better on an individual level than a corporate one.   I’ll take a moment here to hit a quick rundown, and perhaps run a more official story in the new year:

- Each night the 50/50 draw is operated by a different charity group.  They are provided free admission to the track for their volunteers who are operating the draw.  To spread the awareness and keep opportunities open for new groups to get involved, the 50/50 is often operated by many different charities throughout the year.

- Examples of 50/50 charities include Children’s Miracle Network, the Parkinson’s Association, Breast Cancer, Cardiac Fitness at Victoria Hospital, Alzheimer’s, and more.

- On average these charities generate in excess of $400 a night, the final numbers were in excess of $12,000 annually.

- Jesse’s Journey is an example of a charity who has very much come to bat to take ownership of a charity program.  In the past 5 years the charity has raised $25,000 for genetic research through their King of the Hill program involvement.  They’ve come with a strong group of dedicated volunteers which make them not just a great charity partner, but a great partner in general who are always willing to lend a hand, and has done great things to help promote racing.

- The speedway provides significant numbers of complimentary tickets to charity auctions, golf tournaments and fundraisers annually.  We receive hundreds of these requests each season.

- The track also works with a number of charities to provide a mix of discounted or free admission to events.  Salvation Army, Big Brothers / Sisters, and a number of Youth Homes are some of the groups we have worked with in the past.

Simply because a charity (such as the food bank) hasn’t yet been part of a program doesn’t mean they can’t.  It just means a program hasn’t been put together yet.  We are also conscious of “charity saturation”, meaning on a given night we only like to have one program going at a time to ensure each charity gets a fair night - - this means it is difficult to add a charity in the middle of the season, as things get booked up quite quick.  Jim, if you want to spearhead a program I say run with it!  We’ll support you in it, and hopefully better yet, put together something great.

On to the promotional side:

I also asked a while back for tickets to distribute to people at work (we have over 500 employees).

While the speedway wouldn’t be able to provide 500 passes, if your company has a decal on your race car, springing for a handful of courtesy promotional passes for first-timers should not have been an issue.  We’re not in the business of giving away mountains of these for free, but for specific programs (especially for car sponsors) we have been known to be generous.  Better yet, let’s put some schedules and two-for-one passes in your hands to give those people.

I said at the meeting and I meant it - - if you want to help us promote to people who have never been to the track before, we will give you the tools to do it.  

The biggest free promoter is the 401 everybody reads the trucks and trailers and to some degree bumpers stickers

Bumper stickers have been on the back-burner for a while.  It’s a promotion I’ve long wanted to do, but haven’t been able to get it put together in an affordable way as of yet.  With a new emphasis on grass-roots promotion this season, if there’s any decal makers reading this and wanting to put together a price, hit me with it.

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Our commitment to working with drivers this season is sincere - - I have little interest in revisiting old discussions where drivers may have gotten stonewalled on promotional ideas.  Our only interest is starting with a fresh program that we all have invested interest in.  You have one: get in touch in the first part of January.

I think that demonstration of the speedway’s commitment has already begun with the implementation of the driver’s survey, which we are watching with great interest.  Our commitment is only good, however, when matched by commitment from the racing community at the same time…  Of the surveys sent out, fewer than 25% have been returned.  The speedway has held up its end of the commitment by issuing these surveys and promising to take them seriously.  The best Christmas gift this community could give us would be to fill out their survey, today.

Happy Christmas to all, we look forward to working with you in the coming months as we head towards an exciting season.

-John Houghton
Delaware Speedway PR
(519) 652-5068 Ext 201

Hey Jim. I will work with you on a Food Bank program. How about a donation box outside the tech booth? As the teams go thru tech at the beginning of the night you donate a can of something or a box of kd. Between Doug and myself and I am sure other people we could get the donations to the food bank. Just a thought. A very Merry Christmas to all!!! Lets be thankfull for all we have in this great country we live in. Lots of people would gladly trade places with us, includung some right here in our own backyards.