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Racing news: Send the Best Raises $3800
Giving Back - Olympic gold medalist Joey Cheek mingles during the Send the Best Social in Lincoln, Nebr. Send the Best raised more than $3800 with a fund-raiser and raffle during last month's Indoor National Speed Skating Championships in Lincoln, Nebr. The non-profit group collects money to help send members of the U.S. inline speed skating team to the annual World Speed Skating Championships, which this year are in Anyang, South Korea. The group raised $1800 for the World Team at its Send the Best Social at the Holiday Inn-Downtown in Lincoln. More than 280 skaters, family members and guests attended. Dozens more were turned away after the number of attendees exceeded the room capacity of 250. Among the special guests were Olympic gold medalist Joey Cheek and former inline luminaries Julie Glass and Derek Downing. During the social, Send the Best gave away a pile of donated prizes, including two pairs of Rollerblade Lightning fitness skates, two $25-gift certificates from the Olive Garden, five Rollerblade T-shirts, and a video iPod. Ashley McLeod, a member of the 2005 World Team, won the iPod but immediately donated it back to Send the Best. Send the Best raffled it off again a few days later, earning $2004 more for the World Team. (Junior World Team member Mariah Richardson won the second raffle.) Also during the social, Julie Glass, co-owner of Luigino Racing (formerly Powerslide USA), made a surprise pledge of $1000. She earmarked the money for members of the World Team whose travel is not fully subsidized. The U.S. Olympic Committee is paying most of the travel expenses for members of the adult team, but only a third of the cost for members of the marathon and junior teams. Send the Best has already started planning next year's social, which will be in Omaha, Neb., site of next year's Indoor Nationals. After its success this year, the group is thinking big for 2007: It has already booked a banquet hall in Omaha that will seat 800, said Team Leader Martha Polston.
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