Tara Simon Photography » Charity

Tough Enough to Wear Pink

Tara — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 20:06:07 +0000

It’s rodeo time in Springdale, Arkansas. The Rodeo of the Ozarks started on Wednesday night with tonight being the final night. (PBR is next Saturday evening!)

Thursday night was Tough Enough to Wear Pink night at the Rodeo of the Ozarks.

Participants & spectators were encouraged to wear pink to support the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

This year, I went with my grandparents. We had pretty good seats to see the bucking and the racing. The roping and wrestling was at the other end of the arena but it wasn’t too far away to see.

An 8 year old sang the national anthem. It was a great rendition for such a young girl.

Yes, those are a breed of monkey riding on dogs. They helped herd the rams you see on top of the truck.

The Rodeo of the Ozarks Rounders performed a nice routine.

Buckin’ in the Ozarks is in Springdale next Saturday night. It’s a stop for the PBR Challenger Tour. With the Built Ford Tough Series “off” for another 13 days (according to PBRNow.com’s countdown), I’m hoping we might see a BFTS regular or two in town to participate.

On the PBR note…PBR regular LJ Jenkins participated in the Rodeo of the Ozarks. He rode on Thursday night.

Here is a slideshow of the photos I took Thursday evening.

NASCAR Day 2009

Tara — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:00:59 +0000

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXQ8IpdFNqg

Today is NASCAR Day 2009. NASCAR Day is a “one-day celebration of the NASCAR spirit and its fans.” For a $5 donation, participants receive a special commemorative lapel pin and are encouraged to wear their favorite NASCAR duds to work and play today. The proceeds from the donations go to the NASCAR Foundation, which helps fund several organizations including Victory Junction Gang Camp.

It’s not too late to help this wonderful cause! Click here to see a list of the charities the NASCAR Foundation supports and to donate.

Dancing, Bikes, & the Hogs

Tara — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 03:13:16 +0000

Dancing with the Stars started this week. It did not disappoint! There are some, of course, that aren’t dancers but there are several that are pretty good week 1 and should just get better and better and better. Who are my favorites? Well, Lance Bass was my favorite going into this season. His partner is perfect for him. Here was their first dance of the competition.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EatGSyne5Ic

I also think Brooke Burke is going to be a favorite all season long. Warren Sapp is a very pleasant surprise. He’s a good sized guy but can definitely move!

Bikes, Blues, & BBQ started last night in Fayetteville. I knew this bike rally was large but I didn’t realize how large – 3rd largest bike rally in the country and largest charitable bike rally in the country. The rally raises money for some great local charities. In the past, I’ve attended a concert or two during the rally – Big & Rich 2 years ago, actually. The concert this year is the Allman Brothers on Saturday night. I have a friend’s engagement party to go to so I won’t be attending. It should be a good concert, though, I’m sure.

The Razorbacks finally play the Longhorns on Saturday afternoon. The game is a couple of weeks later than it should have been because of Hurricane Ike but I don’t think the outcome is really going to be that different. It isn’t that I’m a pessimist. I’m thinking of myself more of a realist right this moment when thinking about the game. I would absolutely love to be proved wrong, though. The game is on tv and I’m going to my parents’ house to watch the game & hang out.

We interrupt the donations…

Tara — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:23:10 +0000

Original:

It looks like NetworkForGood.org, which is the website I am using for donations is currently having some technical difficulties. I apologize for this inconvenience if you are wanting to donate. Hopefully, it won’t take them very long to get their issues resolved. I will let you know when it starts working again, and you will be able to donate on behalf of my cause for at least 48 hours after today is over.

9:30 am Update:

It looks like it is back up and running again. Let me know if you get any error messages when attempting to donate.

It’s for the Kids

Tara — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 14:00:55 +0000

As I previously mentioned, my charity of choice to support during the Day of Blogs is the Victory Junction Gang Camp. I am a huge NASCAR fan (if my blog title didn’t give that away). VJGC was founded by Kyle Petty (NASCAR driver) and his wife Pattie in memory of their son Adam. (Adam died in a racing accident in 2000. He was my age.) The mission of the Victory Junction Gang Camp is…

The Victory Junction Gang Camp enriches the lives of children with chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses by providing life-changing camping experiences that are exciting, fun, and empowering, in a safe and medically sound environment.

VJGC is located in Randleman, NC with a 2nd location being planned for the Kansas City, MO area. If you haven’t ever heard of the Victory Junction Gang Camp, I encourage you to visit their website to see photos & videos and read about what they can do & what is going on.

This entry was written for the Day of Blogs 2008. My charity I’m supporting is the Victory Junction Gang Camp. You can donate to my cause my clicking here or using the widget on the right-hand side of my blog. To see all of the entries I have written so far for the Day of Blogs 2008, click here or select the DayOfBlogs08 tag.

Welcome to Day of Blogs 2008!

Tara — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:00:39 +0000

This is the official beginning of my Day of Blogs. I plan on posting at least 1 blog entry every 30 minutes for the next 24 hours. (That’s 48 for those of you counting.)

I’m going to use this day to catch you up on the goings on in my life, share some (maybe) new things about myself, and most importantly tell you about the Victory Junction Gang Camp.

VJGC is the charity I have chosen to support today. I know some of you can donate and some of you can’t. Any donation (no matter the amount) is appreciated. There is a widget from Network for Good on the right-hand side of my blog that you can use to donate. If you are not able to donate (and even if you are), I would love for you to share this day with me by checking in periodically and reading/commenting on the blog entries I post today.

My friend Penni is also blogging today. Her charity of choice is the Kasey Kahne Foundation. You can check out her blog here.

There are 2 ways you can easily access all of the entries I post today both today as the day progresses (and the entry count increases) and after today. First, I plan on including a note at the end of each entry today that links to the complete collection of Day of Blogs 2008 entries. You can also click over on the DayOfBlogs08 tag in the My Tags list over on the right to access the collection.

Click here to view my collection of Day of Blogs 2008 entries.

Day of Blogs 2008

Tara — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 03:23:53 +0000

I have decided to participate in the 2008 Day of Blogs. The Day of Blogs is a fundraiser marathon of blogging. It involves blogging for 24 hours straight (at least 1 post every 30 minutes). The reason I am doing this is to raise money for the Victory Junction Gang Camp. (I plan on posting during the DoB about the Victory Junction Gang Camp. If you would like more information about it before then, click on this link.) I have added a widget on the right-hand side of my blog that I would like to encourage readers that are able to use to donate to VJGC either before, during, or up to 48 hours after the Day of Blogs. Whether or not you are able to financially support my cause, I would love for you stop by during the 24 hours and read the blogs I posted and comment. (I’ll need all the encouragement I can get to stay up for 24 hours straight. Haha!) During the day, I am going to be using the category of DayOfBlogs08 so you can easily access all of my entries that day.

If you have any questions, leave me a comment here.

Thanks in advance for your support!

Racing for a Cause

Tara — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:52:38 +0000

The next stop on our whirlwind NASCAR tour was Gillett-Evernham Motorsports in Statesville, NC. There was, unfortunately, no round 2 sighting of Kasey (click here to recall round 1). GEM is probably one of the most up close and personal shops we visited, though. As you can see by looking at my photos, the cars being worked on in the shop are very close to the viewing area and the work space is rather small (compared to some of the other shops we visited). This allows viewers to get a good look at the goings on. Also, I believe GEM is the only shop we visited where we got to see the COT template.

While a paint scheme is typically based on the sponsors’ logos and color schemes, there are (maybe) a handful of items that the drivers themselves can work with their teams to customize. The photo below is a partial photo of Elliott Sadler’s #19 Best Buy Dodge and displays an example of this customization. If you look above the window, you will see the driver’s signature (in this case, Elliott’s). To the right of this are two ribbons – the one of the left is for autism awareness and the one on the right is cancer awareness. (Pink ribbons are typically most closely associated with breast cancer awareness but I am not sure, in this case, if it is that specific.) These are two causes near and dear to Elliott’s heart. Elliott’s niece, for example, was diagnosed with autism in 2001. [For information about Elliott's charity work, go to the Hermie & Elliott Sadler Foundation website.]

Click here to see all of the photos I took at Gillett-Evernham Motorsports.