Born of heartache, a camp for sick children in North Carolina has touched the hearts of numerous “heavy hitters” in the southeast region’s construction industry.
“The Victory Junction Gang Camp” is little more today than 65 acres of trees and a couple of cleared areas. But the project already has created enormous goodwill among contractors and holds promise of being a true blessing to thousands of children within a few years.
The camp is the brainchild of the racing family of North Carolina, Richard and Kyle Petty. Richard Petty is a retired NASCAR legend and the son of another legend, Lee. Richard’s son, Kyle, still races on the NASCAR circuit.
But a fourth generation of Petty racing men, Adam, is the emotional center point of the camp. Adam Petty was killed in May 2000 when his Busch Series race car rammed a wall at the New Hampshire International Speedway.
Before that tragedy, Kyle and his wife, Pattie, had become interested in a series of free camps operated for children who suffer with life-threatening illnesses. They are called “Hole in the Wall Gang Camps” and are patterned after a camp started in the New England area by actor Paul Newman.
The Pettys had visited one of the camps in Florida, The Boggy Creek Gang Camp, as celebrity hosts for a fund-raiser. The Pettys liked the idea so much they decided to bring one to North Carolina.
Then Adam was killed at age 19 and the project became a balm that took on new meaning for the whole Petty family and its friends.
Construction of the camp truly is a labor of love. It is being constructed on land given by the family, and being cleared by a friend of the family, Hugh Hawthorne, who is volunteering his labor using equipment loaned by a dealer. Charity begets charity.
The project began to roll after Hawthorne got wind of the Pettys’ determination to establish the camp. The Hawthornes and Pettys have been close friends for decades.
“Richard donated 100 acres on the back side of his farm,” said Hawthorne. “I told him, count me in. I’ll come in and do the site work.”
Hawthorne is more than just a family friend and former stock car racing driver. He is a retired construction contractor from Richmond, VA. To get started, he borrowed a couple of pieces of equipment from his sons, both of whom also are contractors in the Richmond area. Hugh Jr. runs Excaliber Construction. Scot is president of Alpine Construction.
With equipment in tow, the 72-year-old Hawthorne and a friend of his, Walter Link, rumbled on down I-85 in early spring of this year to the Petty property south of Greensboro, NC, near Level Cross. There the volunteers began their personal quest to begin turning 65 rural acres into a campsite.
The acreage is fully-wooded with stands of pine and hardwoods and is gently rolling like much of North Carolina. It is situated near a stream called Polecat Creek and adjacent to one of the state’s many paved farm-to-market roadways.
Before long, Hawthorne realized he needed more equipment. So he approached a John Deere equipment dealer in the Richmond area with whom he and his sons had worked, James River Equipment.
James River operates 11 John Deere equipment and parts outlets in Virginia, four more in North Carolina and one in South Carolina. Mark Romer, president of the company, listened to his good customers’ pitch. Romer has stated that he quickly realized the camp was “a very interesting project, a good idea.”
That meant Hawthorne and Link suddenly had a wealth of John Deere equipment with which to work. Romer has provided to them, for free, an 850C dozer, a 755C crawler loader, two excavators — a 330 LC and 200CLC — and a 9400 ag tractor to pull a scraper pan. He threw in an articulated off-road truck for the heavy hauling.
Any maintenance needs for the equipment are met by field service mechanics out of the James River store just up the road in Greensboro.
“This has been one of the greatest experiences,” Hawthorne said of the contributions by James River Equipment. He spoke in May during a lull in his site preparation work. “I couldn’t ask for anybody to do more than he [Romer] has done. And cost has never been mentioned in any way.”
By late April, the two volunteers had cleared and burned about 8 acres (3.2 ha) in the area where a lake will be formed and were awaiting a permit for the dam. They had cleared the path of the main roadway into the camp and completed some other preliminary work.
Just how much dirt will be moved is unclear, but Hawthorne projects it will be a minimum of 100,000 cu. yds. (76,455 cu m). As much as 20 ft. (6 m) of earth must be scraped away in places to get the site to grade.
This is partly because of the camp’s special needs. Unlike some gently rolling properties that contractors try to work around and preserve, the footprint of much of this site must be pretty level.
Greg Shaw, senior project manager for general contractor Shelco Inc., explained that the goal is to create a site that provides “convenient accessibility” for every child who comes to camp.
“We’re going to try to obtain a grade that meets ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] requirements,” he said. Backdrop hillsides will still be rolling, but any parts of the camp to be explored by one child will be accessible to all.
As plans for the NASCAR-themed camp were being drawn — in truth, noted Hawthorne, “They are drawing plans as we go along.” — Richard Petty mused aloud about really giving it a racing flavor.
“It would be nice if we could get a race track in this camp,” Hawthorne remembered Petty saying. So be it. Hawthorne already has roughly cleared an area for a simulated track, which will be about a .5 mi. (.8 km) around.
Grading for it isn’t complete because Hawthorne “ran into rock on turns 3 and 4,” he said, with a hint of frustration.
The race track ultimately will be the focus of 36 camp buildings. The placement of each structure will be determined in relation to the extended oval.
Race track-themed buildings will include a medical center, theater, gym, spiritual center, dining hall, library and numerous cabins, as well as horse and boating facilities.
Will there be race cars? Yes, said Brian Collier, executive director of the camp. “The cars will be designed to be loud, but not fast.”
Collier added that the board overseeing development wants a safe camp with maximum access for the estimated 230,000 children in the Carolinas and Virginia who are seriously ill and can benefit from it.
Working with architect Little & Associates in Charlotte, the board is “incorporating access into its very design,” Collier said. “We’re trying to exceed ADA guidelines.”
The Hole in the Wall Gang organization provides seed money after a formal assessment shows that a camp will meet real needs. The North Carolina camp has a $25-million price tag, of which about a quarter has been raised, Collier explained.
Victory Junction will be the fifth of the affiliated camps in the United States and, of course, the only one with a racing theme. The connection with racing is more than novelty.
“Richard [Petty] is in my office just about every day,” said Collier. “The family is extremely involved in the camp. Kyle, of course, has other obligations in terms of racing.”
Besides the Pettys, the 12-person board of directors includes Hathaway, who raced stock cars for four years beginning in 1959, and Rick Hendrick, who sponsors a NASCAR racing team.
The influence of Romer of James River Equipment does not end with the donated use of his machinery. In early April, he sponsored a tour of approximately 150 contractors of a John Deere and Hitachi excavator manufacturing plant in Kernersville, NC, near Greensboro.
Romer decided to guide the tour over to the Victory Junction site as well, giving contractors the chance to meet the Pettys and to become acquainted with the project.
“It was an amazing thing,” he said weeks later. “All were very impressed. More than 20 of the contractors offered to donate their time to the project. Some sent money.”
Hawthorne added that he received personal pledges of commitment from some “heavy hitters” in the industry. “Two-thirds of the contractors who visited told me, ’If you can use some help, you call me’.”
Also volunteering services and products is a major home improvement store, a regional seed dealer, a fuel oil company and a Richmond trucking company, Southern Transport.
The project is a sensitive one and the senior manager of it is being careful about who is selected to work. “We want subs who have some compassion, concern, a feel for this project,” said Shaw, the Shelco project manager. “This job is a little different. The bottom line is who it’s for. If we have a passion for it now, in the beginning, that will reflect on how we do.” Shaw added that Shelco “considers it a privilege to be working on this.”
Shelco is a Charlotte company founded in 1978 in Winston-Salem, with 2001 revenues totalling approximately $305 million. It operates in the Carolinas, Virginia and Georgia.
Shaw said he has been told the site will be ready for his subcontractors in August. If that schedule is met, the camp is expected to be completed in April 2004 with the first campers arriving the following June.
Victory Junction will offer summer sessions for up to 125 children at once, all with the same illness, which could range from arthritis to heart disease to sickle cell anemia. The camp also will offer family weekend retreats and special retreats for children with severe illnesses or handicaps, such as spina bifida.
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