In March, I came in contact with Claudia and Betsy. I needed to complete some servant leadership hours for school to graduate. Little did I know I would fall in love with Speedway Children's Charities and the people I was working with. I had such a great experience, I found out about an internship that could be offered. I applied and interviewed for the internship and now here I am.

I am currently interning with Speedway Children's Charities and I am loving every minute of it. I look forward to getting up every day to come in to plan events, contact donors and volunteers design flyers, just to name a few. Although I just started almost two weeks ago, this has been a great experience. However, I am still learning about the charity and how it works.  I cannot wait to see what is in store for me here at Speedway Children's Charities. I look forward to the events that are coming up and working with the volunteers.

When all is said and done, I can say I have been on both sides. I worked as a volunteer and now I'm working as an employee. My co-workers are great and I love the enthusiasm they have for the charity. I am learning every day how much hard work goes into working for a charity. This is an opportunity I am thankful for and so excited about what is to come!

This past weekend we concluded all of our winter activities and wow, was it an amazing season! For 51 straight nights vehicles from all over came to see more than two million lights stretched across 4.5 miles of our property during the 14th season of AutoTrader.com Speedway In Lights Powered by TVA.

We try to add something new and spectacular every year. This year's addition of the 300,000 LED light synchronized light show, Symphony of Lights, turned out to be a crowd favorite. Dancing to 6 holiday tunes it was really a sight to see! The show covered three acres of Waltrip Grandstand in turns three and four. The Bristol Motor Speedway employees really worked hard to get this installed and it showed! Another new element to this year's Speedway In Lights was Santa's Speedway Sleigh Thursdays. Every Thursday night we ran an open-air tram ride through the lights. Sure it was a little chilly but that's what the holidays are all about! We stocked the sleigh with blankets and cranked the Christmas music. All riders got a free photo of their evening from Walgreens and a bag of Marshmallows for roasting in Christmas Village. There weren't many nights that both the 6 p.m. & 8 p.m. sleigh weren't full so we are excited about bringing it back for our 15th season!

The Johnson Controls Ice Rink was back for it's 9th season and welcomed thousands of skaters. We also had the privilege of holding a promotion with the Knoxville Ice Bears hockey team. Six players and their mascot came out to skate with fans and sign autographs. Electric 94.9 College Night also returned for another season and was a big hit as usual.

Back for a second season was the HVAC Chill Hill Tube Slide which consists of two 300 foot lanes of snowless tubing surface. It was so much fun to watch the families squeal with delight for all 300 feet!

We want to thank everyone that came out to our winter activities and supported Speedway Children's Charities! We had a fantastic year and raised a lot of money for children in our region! Be sure to stay tuned to see what we'll be doing for the 15th season. That's a big anniversary and we plan to celebrate!

Speedway Children's Charities had an amazing week of fundraisers leading up to the IRWIN Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway!

We started out on Monday with the 12th Annual Speedway Children's Charities Golf Tournament presented by Baker's Construction Services which allowed nearly 150 golfers to hit the greens for the kids of our region. We also hosted the Scotts Turf Builder Cornhole Classic and the Speedway Children's Charities Track Walk. Everyone had a great time for a great cause! We can't forget about the Live Auction we held on Thursday night where Justin Allgaer and Brad Daughtery stopped by to help raise funds for the kids and hang out with the fans. We also had a great time hosting all of our Ultimate Bristol Experience Online Auction winners. They got to spend time with the Trackside Live hosts, Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, Juan Pablo Montoya, Scott Speed and Clint Bowyer. Not to mention a couple of the winners got to watch the entire race from Bristol Motor Speedway's newly renovated infield! All in all it was a fantastic weekend allowing SCC to raise lots of money for the children of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.

We are so grateful to all the BMS fans and loyal supporters of SCC and we can't wait to move on to the next event, the Sharky 500. We got a great jump on selling sharks race week thanks to all of our hard working volunteers who helped sell almost 1,000 entries to BMS Night Race fans at the track. Who will win the Bristol Motor Speedway Pace Car this year? How about the $5,000 to Grand Home Furnishings? Purchase your shark online today and get in the race!

It is amazing that the 2010 Food City 500 race weekend has now officially come and gone. Speedway Children's Charities had a fantastic couple of weeks of fundraising and we are very grateful to all the fans that came out to support us!

Dinner with Darrell Waltrip was a hoot! The pace car laps that he gave to our guest afterwards were a thrill to watch and I can tell the passengers were surprised with how little DW held back. They were getting around "the World's fastest half-mile" qualifying style! Thanks to DW for giving his time and helping us raise thousands of dollars for Tri-Cities children in need.

On Friday we had a great turn-out for the Richard Petty Driving Experience ride-alongs and had a lot of fun auctioning off several autographed items at Food City Race Night! The Wii Boxing match with the likes of Elliott Sadler, Scott Speed, AJ Allmendinger, Clint Bowyer, Brad Keselowski, Kyle Busch & Joey Logano was a lot of fun to watch and they were all kind enough to autograph some items for SCC to auction off. The Family Feud battle between Jeff Burton along with Kevin and Delana Harvick versus Tony Stewart, Ryan & Krissie Newman proved to be a crowd favorite and SCC auctioned off two other spots on each team for fans! They had a great time and got to yell out silly answers with some of NASCAR's best!

Saturday there was the second of two qualifying tournaments during the Scotts Turf Builder Cornhole Classic to benefit Speedway Children's Charities. Nothing like tossing some corn-filled bags around for charity! The American Cornhole Organization made sure it was a fun event for Cornhole pros and beginners alike. That evening we held our very first March weekend Speedway Children's Charities Track Walk. Bristol is known for night-racing, well on Saturday we decided we'd do some night-walking! General Sadler and the YMCA teens entertained the anxious crowd before going down to trek the high-banks.

Sunday was a great day for Speedway Children's Charities auction winners. Three of these SCC supporters jumped in the bed of a Ford F-150 with their favorite driver for driver introductions while others got to attend the driver's meeting, pre-race and stand in Victory Lane while Jimmie Johnson celebrated his first win at Thunder Valley.

We held several other events throughout the weekend to raise funds for children in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia and we are so thankful to the fans for their overwhelming support. Now we prepare for the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals along with the Irwin Tool Night Race week and the Third Annual Sharky 500 where we will give away the 2010 pace car! From the bottom of our hearts THANK YOU FANS FOR ALL YOU DO TO HELP CHILDREN IN NEED!

The Bristol Chapter of Speedway Children's Charities would like to thank everyone that participated in any of our events during August Race Week!

We had so many different events going on all over property all weekend long we were able to raise a lot of money for the Children of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.

You know us though we're always moving forward and now we are working on our Sharky 500 & Kids Expo to take place on October 17th. We are all very excited about the second year of this fundraiser! Last year we raced 4,400 rubber sharks down Beaver Creek here on the Speedway property and the winning shark's owner took home a Centurion Boat. Well this year we're giving away Bristol Motor Speedway's 2009 Ford Mustang Pace Car! Second place is $5,000 to Grand Home Furnishings and third place is a vacation package to Universal Studios Orlando courtesy of All Journeys Travel & Allegiant Air. Sharks are available at many different locations including online right here at www.speedwaycharities.org, All Pizza Plus locations, Tri-Cities Fas Mart Convenience Stores and Grand Home Furnishings. We hope to have thousands and thousands of little rubber sharks fighting for the checkered flag come October 17th!

We will also hold a Kids Expo that day that is totally free for everyone and will have a lot of free activities for kids including inflatables, a rock wall, face painting, monster trucks and much more! We will also be signing folks up to drive their own car around "The World's Fastest Half-Mile." We hope to see you there cheering on your shark and enjoying the festivities!

On Thursday, May 14, it will be more important than ever for some of the NHRA's top stars to make sure they drive straight in Bristol. 

They won't be driving their powerful machines to the finish line in Thunder Valley, but making sure their opening shots land on the fairway during the Sixth Annual Bristol Dragway Celebrity Golf Benefit presented by Alpha Natural Resources at the Country Club of Bristol.

The tournament, which sees many NHRA racers compete for the coveted Darrell Russell Cup, benefits the Bristol Chapter of Speedway Children's Charities and takes place the day before the first round of qualifying for the Thunder Valley Nationals.

Last year's tournament featured 20 drivers and raised more than $25,000 for various charities throughout Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.

Among the drivers expected to participate in this year's tournament are six-time and defending Top Fuel champ Tony Schumacher, Pro Stock legend Bob Glidden, Brandon Bernstein, Larry Dixon, Doug Herbert, Bob Tasca, Allen Johnson and Dave Connolly.

The tournament begins with registration and a putting contest at 11 a.m.  Lunch is scheduled for noon.  The shotgun start is slated for 1 p.m.

A limited number of slots remain available.  Hole sponsorship is $1,500, which includes a four-person team and signage on the sponsored hole. Teams also may be purchased for $1,200 without a hole sponsorship. All team members will receive a goody bag as well as lunch.

To enter a team or for more information, please contact Barbara Kaiser-Pigg at (423) 989-6975 or via email at barbara@bristolmotorspeedway.com

The Bristol Chapter of Speedway Children's Charities got a nice fundraising boost after the Saturday Night Special at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 21 due to a couple of drivers' generosity.

Jimmy Spencer and Jack Ingram, who participated in the Saturday Night Special at BMS, a race for former Bristol winners which took place after the Scotts Turf Builder 300 Nationwide event, donated half of their earnings to the Bristol Chapter of SCC. Both drivers donated $2,500 each to the non-profit organization that raises funds for children's agencies in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia.

From everyone at Bristol Motor Speedway and the Bristol Chapter of Speedway Children's Charities, a hearty thanks to Jimmy and Jack for opening their hearts to SCC!

As I watched the souvenir haulers and RVs leave property Monday I couldn't believe that it was all over!

We had a great week of raising funds for Speedway Children's Charities and we are very appreciative of all the fans, volunteers and companies that supported us!

The Richard Petty Driving Experience Ride-Alongs on Friday night sold out and it was great to see all the smiles when folks jumped out of the cars. We want to send a big THANK YOU to all the hard working men and women with Richard Petty Driving Experience. They sure know how to entertain and make their customers happy! With over 300 rides given, Speedway Children's Charities is going to benefit tremendously from the evening's events.
The Ride of a Lifetime Auction presented by Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, TN was a great success as well! The 15 lucky winners hopped in the back of convertible Ford Mustangs and got to spend some time chatting with the driver of their choice right before the Food City 500.

I want to give another special thank you to all of our volunteers that came out to the track and put in long hours to help us sell NASCAR Day pins and the Motorcycle Raffle tickets. The motto of the weekend was "sell sell sell" and you all lived up to that!

I'd like to wrap up by saying that it was an intense weekend filled with caring and generous individuals. Speedway Children's Charities could not reach the thousands of children that we do without everyone's help. We are very blessed to be surrounded with such wonderful energy. Here's to a successful and fun Food City 500 weekend!! Now lets get ready for the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway!

Barbara Kaiser-Pigg
Marketing/Event Manager, SCC
Bristol Motor Speedway

One our favorite weeks of the year is coming up as we get ready for the Food City 500 and all the other March races.

The speedway has planned lots of new activities for the race fans when they get here and the Bristol Speedway Children's Charities team has plenty of events on tap for our visitors to "The World's Fastest Half-Mile".

It is going to be a great week full many different and new things for the fans to do. As always, we have Ride of A Lifetime Auction, Richard Petty Driving Experience Ride A- Long, Walk of Fame Pavers and Doug Shealey beautiful prints of NASCAR's most popular venue. Speaking of prints, we will have big news to announce in the very near future about a project between Bristol Motor Speedway and another one of America's great artists.

What's new is Food City Race Night on Friday night at the Speedway. Look for the Charities to have a big presence at this popular event.

Please make it a point to look us up when you are here. We appreciate your continued support as this economy has created more need than ever among children's focused organizations in our region. Have a great time at the Food City 500 and help the Bristol chapter of Speedway Children's Charities make a difference in the lives of children.

Claudia Byrd

It seems like we were just visiting the pediatric ward at Hoston Valley Medical Center with our Holiday of Smiles goody bags and now it's the end of February!

That means that the Food City 500 weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway is less than 30 days away. We're so excited to welcome 160,000 of our closest friends to town and SCC is even more excited to have the opportunity to raise money for the children in our community. We have two large fundraisers; the Ride of a Lifetime Auction presented by Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, TN and the rides conducted by Richard Petty Driving Experience. Both are unique opporutnities for race fans to either ride around the track or interact with their favorite drivers. We've held both fundraisers for a few years now and they've really grown. With the economy uncertainty we've all wondered how they'll go in 2009. We're so anxious to raise more money than ever because the financial climate is going to cause our non-profit children's agencies to need it more than ever. SCC really wants to step it up this year and help meet more of the need. If you're interested in our upcoming March fundraisers visit our Events page on this website.

In addition to those mentioned above we will also have some smaller fundraisers taking place around property. We will be selling a limited edition painting of Bristol Motor Speedway by Doug Shealy. There are only 2,500 and each is signed and numbered by the artist. Fans will also have the opportunity to leave a permanent mark at BMS on the Walk of Fame. SCC will be set up in front of the old ticket office selling these items. BMS visitors will see NASCAR Day pins everywhere they turn during the Food City 500 weekend too. SCC and the NASCAR Foundation have partnered once again to get people involved in NASCAR Day on May 16. Pins are only $5 and the proceeds will go to support both organizations.

We love race week and we love raising money for kids so if you have any questions about what I've mentioned feel free to give me a call, 423-989-6975 or shoot me an email barbara@bristolmotorspeedway.com. The racing season has begun and SCC is ready to make 2009 a great year for thousands of children!

Barbara Kaiser-Pigg
Marketing/Event Manager