Forest Hill, MD - Just as The RAACE Foundation was ecstatic over the results of its 5th Annual RALLY for RAACE Motorcycle Ride, Family Fun Day and Kobbfest - The RAACE Foundations signature yearly fundraising event and days away from debuting "The Giant Wheel" at The Maryland State BBQ Championships the RAACE website was virtually attacked and shut down.

With two of the biggest awareness events to date happening for The RAACE Foundation over the past few weeks, a key instrument in their awareness and education campaign to expose the hidden epidemic of child sexual abuse was rendered inoperable by cyber attack. “Mostly it was the sites vast array of images, articles and links that were taken down, while not every part of the site was affected, it sure hit us hard and at a very bad time – almost as if the attack were planned. With repairs continuing, the site has been operating slowly and shut down our ability to post new News articles with some images being lost completely” according to Interactive Director, Ashley Mulligan.

We are working very hard to get back online – this kind of thing happens, especially considering how prevalent the epidemic of child sexual abuse is in our society and how faceless a crime of cyber attack can be for the organization. We continue to put every resource we have to get the #1 tool in our arsenal of child sexual abuse awareness and education working properly as quick as we can. It took days just to get access back into the site.” Mulligan continued.

With over 500 riders in the RALLY, over 100 show cars and bikes in Kobbfest and 2,000 supporters at The Family Fun Day, The RALLY for RAACE was a huge success and with the record attendance of over 30,000 people at The Bel Air BBQ Bash, The RAACE Foundation was excited to see how that would translate into future support via online donations, volunteerism, and membership sign-ups for TeamRAACE” said Executive Director Brad Brickel.

In the wake of this attack, all of that was rendered useless and crushing as to the effectiveness for our organization and the activities at these events. Surely everyone at the RALLY and The BBQ Bash know who and what The RAACE Foundation is about. It is the external post event follow up that is so crucial to our growth and long term survival in this tough economy. With the help of major media attention on both events, this was surely going to be our best August to date. Sponsors want to see web figures, fans want to read about the activities, donors want to make sure their dollars go towards our awareness activities, and RAACE wants to know that we are reaching our goals for growth and effectiveness; all of which come down to interactive results, new development opportunities, and constituents which we do not have, thanks to this attack” Brickel added.

The RAACE Foundation would like to thank you for your patience and hope that you continue to visit the site in record fashion as before the attack. Rest assured, The RAACE Foundation will not bow in its effort to expose this hidden epidemic. If you would like to make a donation to help offset the costs of this attack, please contact The RAACE Foundation at 1.800.755.KIDS or visit www.raace.org.