Goulds Pumps, ITT Industries has united in a new way with professional racecar drivers, race sponsors and other individuals throughout the NASCAR community to support one charity benefiting thousands of kids - the Victory Junction Gang Camp, established to honor the memory of Adam Petty, who was 19 when he died in a crash during practice for a NASCAR race.
Recently, Goulds Pumps and fellow ITT Industries subsidiary Flotronex Inc. - together with a group of engineers donated and installed several pump packages that will be used for irrigation and to maintain the level of a small lake at the camp located in Level Cross, N. C. Brian Collier, executive director of the Victory Junction Gang Camp, says the Petty family “is extremely excited about the Goulds Pumps and Flotronex donation because landscaping is extremely important to them. A reliable and efficient irrigation system is crucial to our landscaping needs. Landscaping helps establish the fun, creative and empowering feeling they want when the kids arrive.”
“We owe a debt of gratitude to the FitzBradshaw Racing team for introducing Victory Junction to Goulds Pumps,” Collier says. Financial contributions and equipment donations worth millions of dollars represent a sizeable part of what companies and individuals have done for the kids' camp.
Don Radford, director of motorsports programs at Goulds Pumps says, “It's the nature of the project itself - and the nature of who it represents” that has prompted such an outpouring of support for the camp.
“We all want to help these chronically ill kids,” Radford says. “But this also is an opportunity to help the Petty family work through this difficult time.” The camp is the seventh in a network of Hole in the Wall Gang Camps for chronically ill children originally begun by actor Paul Newman. Other camps are located in Connecticut, Florida, New York, California, Ireland and France.
Each week of the summer, up to 125 kids aged seven to 15-years-old take over the brightly-colored cabins and facilities, for fishing, swimming, horse-back riding and dozens of fun-filled activities. Some even have the chance to play and pretend in Adam's Race Shop - a giant car-shaped facility filled with race simulators and other racing-oriented games. “We're pleased and honored to be able to play even a minor role in the camp's success,” Radford says.