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Santa Rosa Trip - July 2004

What a fun time we had during our latest visit to the Santa Rosa Children's Hospital. The club brought over 500 cars and some cool prizes to give out to all of the children at the hospital. As an added bonus, the club pulled out the 48 foot race track just for this event.

The kids who were well enough to make the trip down to the outside pavillion were able to choose anything they wanted to race on the track.

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Once the word got out about the prizes and the racing, things got pretty crowded downstairs. At first some of the kids weren't sure about what cars to race. There were so many different styles and colors to choose from. The popular castings seemed to be tuners and the cars with the big motors.

About Santa Rosa Children's Hospital

CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Children's Hospital is a 200-plus bed facility, providing care to more than 150,000 children each year. The children's hospital features 24-hour, level two, emergency services, a pediatric rehabilitation unit, the Titanium Rib Project, a 16-room children's cancer and blood disorders center, a 7,000-square foot respite station, a pediatric hospice suite and specialized child life and child development services. Our club's primary donations go to the 8th Floor Cancer and Blood Disorder Center and the remaining donations are distributed to the other children's clincs on site.

For many of the kids, this was their first time racing cars on a track. You can tell by their selections that a lot of thought went into how they thought the cars would run down the lanes.

Here is Cortney looking through the new 2004 poster and checking out the racing action. She raced the Too Cool and got second place on her first try.

We raced several rounds and many of the cars were raced several times throughout the event. Things started getting interesting when all of the winning cars had to race against each other. The racing was a little tighter and very close.

Here is Steven, who was the overall winner with his 'Race Team' Panoz LMP. The final race was between the Eye Candy and the Panoz.

Here is a picture of some of the prizes that were awarded during the event. These were mostly cars, posters, and sets that couldn't be raced during the day. The Monster Trucks were a big hit and so were the 5-Pack Gift sets.

The turnout was great and most of these were awarded by the end of the day. You can tell the kids had a blast and didn't want to leave when the event ended.

At the next event, we hope the renovations inside are complete so we can race indoors. It was a very hot day outside and very humid! Maybe it was the racing that made it so hot?

It was a lot of fun visiting with the kids and we are looking forward to the next trip to Santa Rosa. Many thanks to Laura with Childlife who helped us put on a great event.

Santa Rosa Trip - Sept. 2003

In September 2003, our club visited the Santa Rosa Children's Hospital to deliver over 600 Hot Wheels, 15 Backpacks, Lego Blocks, and Drawing Tablets. These items were donated by the club members and were collected at each of the monthly meetings.

Kids from all over the Hospital were called over to the 8th floor activity room where they were able to pick out anything they wanted. At first some were a tad shy but after awhile they opened up to us and were able to get as many cars as they wanted.

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The cars included Hot Wheels First Editions, Series cars, Track sets, 5-Packs, Johnny Lightnings, Matchbox, and NASCAR. A majority of these were given out to all of the kids who are patients on the 8th floor at Santa Rosa. The remainder would be distributed to the patients on the remaining floors.

Here is Rob and Joe with some of the Childlife staff at Santa Rosa. We were very happy to make the trip to the hospital, donate some of the coolest cars in the world, and show our club's giving spirit. Our next visit to the hospital was in July of 2004.

The club took the race track out to the hospital and gave the kids an opportunity to race some cars!

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This page last updated July 22, 2004.