Motor Sports: McClure donates racing for Rainbow Raffle winnings to charity

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (June 17, 2001) -- Phil McClure, of Floris, Iowa, was drawn as the winner of Racing for the Rainbows charity raffle this week. Racing for the Rainbow is the We Make A Difference Foundations first charitable drive. The Cleveland-based We Make A Difference Foundation, an official charity of the SCCA Pro Racing Speedvision World Challenge, sold nearly 2000 tickets, at $100 apiece, for a chance to win a Porsche 996 donated by Stoddard Imported Cars, or $50,000 cash.

McClure, driver of the No. 73 Aggregate Industries/McClure Concrete Chevrolet Corvette C5, opted to take the monetary reward, and return the money to charity. He will be disbursing his winnings among five charitable foundations.

McClure will present a check for $10,000 back to Gary Christopher, chairman of the We Make a Difference Foundation, with the remaining $40,000 evenly divided between four organizations in McClures home state of Iowa.

They include the Children's Hospital of Iowa, Heartland Pregnancy Center, Hospice of Davis and Wapello County Iowa and Dollars for Scholars. With the money coming from charity, it only seems right to turn around and invest it back in the charities that are important to me, said McClure. This is a great way to give back to the racing community as well as my own community.

The We Make A Difference Foundation was established in 2000 by Gary Christopher & Associates. The goals of the organization are to raise the quality of life for chronically ill or disabled children, raise the quality of life of children through educational activities and to help children raise their self-esteem.

The Foundation works with three charities to reach these goalsthe Rainbow Babies & Childrens Hospital based out of Cleveland; the NFL Alumni Association, Cleveland Chapter; and the Northern Mariana Sports Challenge.

For more information, go to the Racing for the Rainbow website.