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When The Wheel Spins Everyone Wins at Gettysburg Bike Week
By Brad Brickel
Thu, Jul 8, 2010 12:58 AM CST
For more information on Gettysburg Bike Week
visit www.gettysburgbikeweek.com
Key to these strategic planning sessions was the need to figure out a way to not only raise the funds necessary to go around the country creating awareness at large venues, organizational stability and funding the many pieces of awareness materials, but to create something that would be instrumental in making those in attendance slow down long enough to learn the realities of child sexual abuse and at the same time create the press and public relations articles that The RAACE Foundation and The Race Against Abuse of Children Everywhere surely needs.
So, in December the parts and pieces for The RAACE Foundations Time to Talk Awareness Station started to arrive from California. Founder Kenneth Smith and volunteers Steve Smith, Sr., Korey Smith, Kyle Leavitt, Ron Frick, Joe Gutberlet, and others as well as TeamRAACE members Stevie Smith and Brian Leppo began construction and assembly of the "Time to Talk" Awareness Station.
The giant wheel as it became known is 22 feet tall and over 18 feet wide with a spinning gaming wheel of 14 feet inside. Some joked that it looked like "The Stargate", others said it was over the top and even a few said it would never spin. Various display fixtures and an 18 foot gaming table make up the rest of the "Time to Talk" display. One thing is for sure it definitely creates a family atmosphere like a Wildwood, NJ Boardwalk honky-tonk game of chance should. According to Founder Kenneth Smith: "Listening to Director of Development Brad Brickel bark the commands of the wheel and engage the crowds standing around watching you can tell that everyone within ear shot is having a lot of fun!"
Why "Time to Talk"? Simply put with 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 7 boys being sexually abused before the age of 18, with over 39 million survivors and with experts agreeing that open and honest dialogue is the greatest advantage against child sexual abuse, it is definitely Time to Talk about child sexual abuse.
Awareness and education are the two things that can slow down this epidemic. Not building more treatment centers, not putting more kids into foster care, and with only one in ten kids telling of their abuse it is definitely not the child who will tell. We need to turn the faucet off and that happens before the abuse ever occurs.
Kenneth Smith, Founder of The RAACE Foundation continued: "The Wheel was a huge success at Motorsports 2010, The Timonium Motorcycle Show and The Maryland Home Builders Association Show. Not only did the sale of the sponsor spaces allow The RAACE Foundation to have the funds to put awareness materials in the hands of over 70,000+ show attendees, but it got them to stop and ask some serious questions, like what is this giant wheel all about. In the process show attendees had loads of fun playing the wheel and winning prizes while The RAACE Foundation and TeamRAACE volunteers were able to educate fans so no other child has to suffer the same silent fate."
The "Time to Talk" Awareness Station will make its next appearance this week at Gettysburg Bike Week in historic Gettysburg, Pennsylvania July 8th to the 11th, 2010. For more information on Gettysburg Bike Week visit www.gettysburgbikeweek.com. To learn more about The RAACE Foundation, please visit www.raace.org.
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