Charlotte Motor Speedway’s fourth annual Day of Service saw more than three dozen speedway employees roll up their sleeves and volunteer at Wings of Eagles Ranch, a Concord nonprofit that provides therapeutic riding lessons, summer camps and other outdoor activities to special needs children and adults across six counties.
“We have a really long relationship with Wings of Eagles, and we’ve been out here to the ranch several times,” said Greg Walter, executive vice president and general manager at Charlotte Motor Speedway. “It’s a big facility. If we bring out operations and events teams out here, we can really make a big dent in things. Our team has a real servant’s heart; even with the events we put on, it’s always about giving to others.”
As part of the speedway’s Day of Service, volunteers tackled a range of projects from site beautification to spreading mulch, pressure washing and clearing gutters. The speedway also rebuilt a portion of the deck that serves as the landing area for the Wings of Eagles Ranch zipline, a highlight for campers and guests when they visit throughout the year.
Without volunteers like those from Charlotte Motor Speedway, organizations like Wings of Eagles would have a difficult time keeping their facilities up, said the nonprofit’s founder and executive director Christine Cronin.
“Not only do they bring volunteers, but they bring skilled labor,” Cronin said. “Helping us to repair things that need to be repaired – big things, not just the beautification part of it – these work days, and having these guys out here, it’s the icing on the cake.”
This year marked the fourth consecutive year the speedway has dedicated a day to service, but giving back is nothing new at America’s Home for Racing.
“We’ve been part of this community since 1960,” Walter said. “There are signs all over our property that quote Bruton (Smith) that say, ‘We work for the fans.’ That’s what we do every day, at every event. Working here today is just another manifestation of that.”
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