Petty Family Announces New Camp for Chronically Ill Children in Honor of Adam Petty

RANDLEMAN, NC – Kyle Petty, CEO of Petty Enterprises, announced today that he and wife, Pattie Huffman Petty are founding The Victory Junction Gang Camp. The camp will serve as a retreat for seriously ill children and will be in honor of their son, Adam Petty.

The new Camp will be the seventh in the network of Hole In The Wall Gang Camps, founded for Kids by Paul Newman, joining Camps in Connecticut, Florida, New York, California, Ireland and France.

The Camp will be located on property in Level Cross, North Carolina, donated by Richard and Lynda Petty. Other contributions include $50,000 from The Hole In The Wall Gang Camp Fund and $50,000 from The Winston Cup Racing Wives Auxiliary.

A needs-assessment completed by the Center for Research on Chronic Illnesses of the School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, identified more than 235,000 children in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia who benefit from a medical camp. The Victory Junction Gang Camp will serve children in these three states with a full summer camping program as well as family retreat weekends throughout the year.

Kyle Petty first visited the Newman Camp in Florida in 1997 and returned with Pattie on a charity motorcycle ride in 1998. Upon seeing the Camp, Pattie remarked, “we need to bring this kind of miracle to the children back home.”

The vision crystallized following the death of Adam Petty when his brother Austin chose to spend his summer as a lifeguard and counselor at the Florida Camp. The entire Petty family became regular visitors to the camp on trips to visit Austin and strengthened their commitment to building a Camp in North Carolina.

A Medical Advisory Committee recruiting top specialists from the region’s major pediatric centers has endorsed this project and are committed to help create a sound medical program. Medical volunteers recruited to date are from Brenner Children’s Hospital, Duke Medical Center, the North Carolina Pediatric Society, Eastern Carolina University and the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill.

Target date for opening is Summer, 2004.