Scirocco's Vroom Vroom Journal

I'm participating again in a charity race in a few days, an event called the Race Against Leukemia (RAL). Sponsored by the New England Region (NER) of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), the RAL weekend seeks to generate funds for the UMass Medical Center Hospital Leukemia Foundation. This is an event with a more than 20-year history, illustrating how dedicated NER is to giving something back to the community.

So how does it work, and what can you do? Drivers (that's me) collect donations or pledges, and for every $10 of donations I gather, I get one free lap of the course we set up to run on (One "Run"). I can also spend my "Runs" on giving free rides to other drivers.

There are no prizes for winning. This is just a fun event solely for generating donations for the UMass Medical Center. We're racing for fun, and for the RAL itself!

Here's the webpage of what the weekend is about. http://www.ner.org/region/racing-against-leukemia

As this is a charity, this is a tax deductible donation, and I can send you a receipt (via signed PDF)

While $10 buys me a run at the course, feel free to donate less than that. I can add up donations as necessary.

This year, we are utilizing "firstgiving.com" charity donation system. I encourage you to donate through my website there for this event, "http://www.firstgiving.com/wileycoxNER". However, you may also reply here if you wish, or at VolkScirocco@gmail.com if you prefer more anonymous donations. All donations must be pledged at 8/20. Checks are OK, paypal is OK, and if you live local, cash, coins, doubloons and gold bars are acceptable currency. If you make a check out to me, I will make out one single check to RAL for the weekend to cover all the differing ways of payment. :)


Thanks for reading this!

Thanks to some friends, I have my first donations, however, I am looking to raise more this year than I did last year, and I raised $300 last year.

What is Race Against Leukemia?

RAL is a charity event the New England Region (NER) of the SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) holds every year on the third weekend in August. The events held include primarily a Road Rally, a Rally-cross, and (the portion I participate in) an Autocross event. The UMASS Medical Memorial Hospital Leukemia research program is the target of our charity, and we have in past years raised over $20,000 that goes directly to Leukemia research and gets us closer to a cure for the disease.

What am I donating for?

For the portion of the event I do, the autocross, you are donating money for me to make runs on the autocross course trying to set the best time for the event. The event has an elimination format, and there's a "top-8" shootout to decide who the best driver for the event is. Because we partially award scores based on how much money you raise, and since this is a charity event, the person who raises the most money will have an advantage to winning the entire event. Our runs on the course "cost" $10 worth of donation for each run. Last year I raised $300, and made over 20 runs on the course. The top folks collecting donations were bringing in over $800, and our goal for this year is to have multiple $1000 donation sheets from our members! For that, we need your help!

Why does your group do this event?

An autocross event is not just a group of people who come in and take over a parking lot, make a bunch of noise and smoke, and leave. We like to interact with the community, shop at the stores and restaurants, and support the community whenever possible. When we can make a big change for a local institution like UMass Medical Center, we want to make that change! We have participated in this event for a number of years now, and are always looking to generate more money and publicity for the fight against this disease!


We need you to donate money! We ask for a minimum $10 donation, and we put no limit on how much you can donate. We do provide tax-receipts for charity donations if desired. We will not broadcast how much you have donated (unless you want me to), so feel free to donate any amount you wish.

Want to paypal me? Use the button below! You can also reply to this message (comments screened) and we can figure out a way for you to donate to me and this cause.

Donations need to be collected no later than the morning of August 23rd. Thanks in advance for your help!