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Kyle Petty Visits Potential Sites for Camp for Kids in Kansas City

Posted on 01/26/2008, 06:10
By The Kansas City Star (Kansas City, Missouri)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ NASCAR driver Kyle Petty stood in front of an 8-foot-tall map of the Kansas City area on Thursday morning and studied the five counties he would be visiting.
Jackson and Platte in Missouri.
Petty's vision for a new Victory Junction Gang Camp in the Kansas City area moved a step closer to reality on Thursday.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. _ NASCAR driver Kyle Petty stood in front of an 8-foot-tall map of the Kansas City area on Thursday morning and studied the five counties he would be visiting.

Jackson and Platte in Missouri. Wyandotte, Leavenworth and Miami in Kansas.

Petty's vision for a new Victory Junction Gang Camp in the Kansas City area moved a step closer to reality on Thursday.

He and his wife, Pattie, made a presentation to more than 200 business and community leaders at a meeting of the Kansas City Area Development Council at the Westin Crown Center hotel and spent the afternoon touring properties that have been offered for the camp.

An announcement on a location for the camp that helps children with chronic and terminal illnesses, is expected by the end of February, Pattie Petty told The Kansas City Star.

"Everything out here has been positive," Kyle Petty said. "That is what is so amazing about coming here, and coming to the Midwest has been the positive reception."

This was the Pettys' third visit with representatives from the business, political and medical communities since announcing their interest in a camp in Kansas City last September.

He's never been as optimistic as he was on Thursday.

"When we were here in September, it was an egg," Kyle Petty said. "When we came back in November, there was a crack in the egg. Right now, there is a little chicken there that has just poked his beak out the egg. But it's coming out. And once the egg is broken, you can't put it back together. So we have to go forward.

"With the passion we have for it, with the drive that the people at Kansas Speedway have for it, and the way the community has embraced it, I don't see why we can't do something."

The Pettys founded the first Victory Junction Gang Camp in Randleman, N.C., in 2004 in honor of their son, Adam, a NASCAR driver, who died in a crash in 2000 at Loudon, N.H.

The camp, which is funded by donations, serves children affected by 24 diseases or illnesses, including cancer, burns, heart disease, AIDS, asthma, sickle cell anemia, epilepsy, hemophilia, immune system deficiencies/HIV, spina bifida, kidney disease, liver disease, cystic fibrosis, diabetes and autism.

The camp has served about 7,000 children, ages 5 to 17, free of charge. However, the camp cannot keep pace with the number of children who want to attend the facility, especially those from the Midwest and West.

Those who watched the Pettys' video presentation were impressed with the facility and believe the Kansas City area will step up and help fund it.

"Kansas Citians are known for their philanthropy, so I really think the community is going to embrace this," said Mark Jorgenson, president of the Kansas City region for U.S. Bank.

"The Pettys are all about giving back, so it's going to hit a soft spot for a lot of people. And you take yourself out of the human element, and from an economic standpoint, it's going to be very good for Kansas City, too."

Greg Nook, executive vice president of marketing for J.E. Dunn Construction, agreed.

"There is no doubt that this is a tremendous contributor to the health-care side of the community," Nook said. "It's definitely an unmet need. They've gone out of their way to create a tremendous product, and we would hope people will step up and see it as a real plus. It's an amazing thing that they've done, to create the Victory Junction Gang Camp.

"It is a significant contributor to our overall image as a city and what we do and how we care, and there is a lot of consistency of values of what they offer and what this community has been historically."

The original Victory Junction Gang Camp cost about $27 million, and one in Kansas City would probably cost twice that, Pattie Petty said.

"You can start with a plan A, and after you build it, you can make it bigger, which we have ..." she said of the North Carolina camp. "We have a $75 to $100 million facility now."

The camp in North Carolina is open for 10 weeks in the summer and 19 weekends in the spring and fall. It includes fishing, water sports, horseback riding, miniature golf, crafts, bowling and other activities on 72 acres donated by Kyle Petty's father, legendary racer Richard "The King" Petty.

"People appreciate what they're doing for children," said Bob Marcusse, president and chief executive officer of the Kansas City Area Development Council, which recruits new businesses to the region. "They appreciate the fact if they were to have the Victory Junction Camp located within their county or community, it could be a stimulus to other things. They see it as a development ... it's a multi-dimensional thing people are responding to.

"But clearly, above all, there is a sense of wanting to be part of something significant. And caring for children with terminal diseases or chronic diseases and making a difference in their lives is important to a lot of people."

Pattie Petty believes a facility as part of the metropolitan area will benefit both the camp and the community.

"In North Carolina, we're very obscure," she said. "We're in rural North Carolina. Other camps you think of are a little far out in the country. But because of the properties we've been offered, it's very possible it's something people are going to pass by every day, which is great."

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(c) 2008, The Kansas City Star.

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