St. Jude Revs Up Memphis ‘Dream’ Event
Patients at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital will have a particular interest in the upcoming Sam’s Town 250 stock car race at Memphis Motorsports Park: They designed each car’s color schemes.
The NASCAR Busch series event kicks off “Races To Save Lives,” a concept to solicit support for the internationally renowned Memphis hospital founded by entertainer Danny Thomas that provides free treatment to its young patients. St. Jude’s will have a mobile kiosk at the Memphis road race to take names and donations, and signage at the track.
The St. Jude kiosk will roll into several NASCAR races yet to be determined during the 2008 racing season.
Leverage Sports conceived the campaign and the Memphis event, recruiting 20 St. Jude’s patients in a “Design A Dream” project to create designs and color schemes on templates of NASCAR racers. Decals were then reproduced from the designs, and the results will appear on the 16 competing vehicles on race day.
That will give St. Jude’s patients a new level of identity, and potentially provide a high-profile fund-raising platform at a national NASCAR event.
“They wanted to find their niche in NASCAR,” said Ryan Kurek, CEO of Leverage Sports. “We helped St. Jude’s find their niche and make people aware of what the hospital does.”
The mobile kiosk had a test run at the Dover International Speedway Race last month, and the hospital was satisfied with the results. Leverage went trailer-to-trailer at the Bristol, TN, race in August to solicit support from the 16 racing teams who will run under more whimsical colors in Memphis, Kurek said.
Some of St. Jude’s patients also will participate at race events. A few will sing the national anthem with country star Diamond Rio. Others will collectively make the “Gentlemen, start your engines!” call for the start of the race.
Kurek sees the event as a benefit to St. Jude’s and NASCAR, and a bonus to ESPN, which is carrying the race. And he’s hoping it starts a NASCAR fund-raising engine that can help support the hospital’s $1.3 million daily funding needs, he said.
