2021 Racing Against Leukemia Fundraiser
Since 1990, the New England Region has designed a weekend of events to show our support for families battling childhood cancers. And while enjoying our favorite motorsports activities, we also raise funds for the UMass Children’s Medical Research Center.
In 2017, NER members donated $10,017.
In 2018, NER members donated $9,000.
In 2019, NER members donated over $15,000.
In 2020, DURING A PANDEMIC, NER members donated $8,163.
For 2021, August 7-8 will be our annual RAL weekend. As we finalize preparations for the events across all programs, we are making our annual call for donations from the members.
Auction Donations
During the party on Saturday night of the club racing weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, NER will host its annual RAL auction. This year, NICK LEVERONE will be MC’ing the festivities! The items auctioned are all donated by members and all of the money raised goes directly to the UMass center.
WE NEED DONATIONS
Please consider how you can support all the hard work at this medical facility by donating items to be raffled and auctioned off. Consider asking the business your own and work for if they have goods or services to donate. Members have also reached out to local businesses in their area to solicit donations as well.
Possible Donation Ideas include:
- Race car parts and materials: belts and harnesses, cleaning supplies, tools and tool sets, work gloves, tool boxes
- Restaurant gift cards: fast food restaurants, coffee shops (Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks), chain restaurants (Chili’s, Outback, Longhorn)
- Grocery store gift cards: Whole Foods, Stop ‘n Shop, ShopRite
- Kid Toys: Stuffed animals, Hot Wheels, bikes and scooters
- Clothing Items: Rain gear, jackets, hats and gloves
- Gift Baskets: wine and liquor, snacks and sweets, beauty or health products
- Gas cards
- Amusement park tickets: Six Flags, Lake Compounce, Canobie Lake
- Movie tickets: Regal Cinemas, AMC
- Services: spa and massages, oil change
Big or small, whatever you can donate will be used to raise funds to support the fight against childhood cancers. The RAL team is ready to group small donations together into one larger raffle prize, so please do not assume that a small donation will not be useful. Every donation counts!
Donation Details
If you have an item or service to include in the auction, please reach out to NER Regional Exec Abhi Ghatak. You can contact Abhi by email or phone (508-265-8025). Let him know what you plan to donate. Items can be brought to the track the weekend of the event, or arrangements made with Abhi.
The Reason for RAL
As motorsports enthusiasts, we all love the hard-core racing action. But the RAL weekends are special for a different reason. Many of our NER family have and currently are battling cancer. The funds we raised go directly to supporting the UMass Medical Center and provide much needed resources to help those battling childhood cancers. As a region, we are so proud that we can come together to help bring smiles and support to those families. If you haven’t already, check out our visit to UMass last year and get a look at some of the big grins on the children’s faces from our visit. That is why we do this every year.