Wally Dallenbach Jr. Foundation

[Team Hogan Racing Mom]

Wally Dallenbach Jr. Foundation Announced, Provides Access to Outdoors Adventure Programs To Children Who Lose A Parent

 

- Goal of 501©(3) organization’s goal is to impart passion for the outdoors while offering solace to children and their families -

 

SPRING BRANCH, Tex. (December 8, 2009) – Fulfilling a life’s dream to give back to his community, to assist children in their time of need and to educate and impart a passion for the outdoors, Wally Dallenbach Jr., former NASCAR driver and current broadcast commentator, businessman and family man, is proud to announce the creation of the Wally Dallenbach Jr. Foundation.. The mission of the 501©(3) charitable organization is to give children who have lost a parent the opportunity to learn about the outdoors, their heritage and their late parent’s passion through hunting and fishing expeditions.

 

The idea for the Wally Dallenbach Jr. Foundation was created when Dallenbach was making an appearance at a Bass Pro Shops store. There, Dallenbach was approached by a little boy. In his discussion with the child, Dallenbach learned that the boy had lost his father, an avid outdoors enthusiast. Trying to learn more about his father’s life and passion, the boy insisted that he and his mother visit the outdoors store to enjoy a shopping experience that the boy had once with his father. Unfortunately, the boy’s father passed on before they were able to have a “father-son outdoors adventure.”

 

Dallenbach was moved by the boy’s story and since then he has heard many more just like it – missed opportunities due to the untimely passing of a loved one. Instead of merely listening, he decided to do his part to assist these kids, as well as their surviving parent, through the creation of the Wally Dallenbach Jr. Foundation.

“I thought about the experiences that I heard from families and reflected on how I learned to hunt and fish with my father, and passed along my love for the outdoors to my three children,” said Dallenbach, who is also President of the Foundation. “The outdoors has changed my life – it’s given me respect for nature, brought me closer to my family and has been a positive influence that cannot be replaced. It is the effect of the outdoors on me that caused me to create the Wally Dallenbach Jr. Foundation, with its mission to bring children who have lost a parent, as well as the surviving parent, on an outdoors adventure that they would remember for a lifetime.”

 

A Wally Dallenbach Jr. Foundation program will include travel to an outdoors location for the children and a parent or guardian, professional instruction and a full immersion experience in the outdoors. Every aspect of the program will be paid for by the Foundation, including travel, accommodations and applicable permits – allowing the child and their surviving parent/guardian free to experience healing from their grief, while learning new skills in an experience of a lifetime.

Led by outdoors experts, including Dallenbach himself, in some of the world’s most beautiful locations, the children who experience a Foundation program will come away with:

 

- A respect and love for the outdoors and all it represents.

- Useful new skills.

- Additional understanding of their lost parent and a new respect for the lost parent’s outdoors passion.

 

“Hopefully the kids attending a Foundation program will have a great time and gain a new appreciation for the outdoors, as well as experiencing a time of closeness with their surviving parent or closure with their lost parent,” said Dallenbach. “The Foundation’s goal is to give back to the kids, the overall community and to the outdoors, all of which has given so much to me and my family.”

 

The Wally Dallenbach Jr. Foundation also features a board of directors with representatives from the outdoors retail world, television executives and other captains of industry, all of whom will take an active role in the enhancement and continuity of the Foundation.

 

About Wally Dallenbach Jr.

Wally Dallenbach, Jr., 46, is a racer, a television personality, spokesperson, business owner and a dedicated family man. From his roots in Basalt, Colorado, Wally became an avid outdoorsman at the age of eight and has always remained true to his roots as an outdoors advocate. He has served as spokesperson for Bass Pro Shops and creator and star of Track and Trail Adventures with Wally Dallenbach, an outdoors television show which aired for nine years.

Wally has hunted and fished all over the world, and thanks to those experiences and the friends he’s made, many of the top outdoors companies, ranches and outfitters will be taking an active role in the Wally Dallenbach Jr. Foundation. Wally also enjoys the outdoors with his three kids and looks forward to sharing his experiences with program participants.

Wally’s racing career spans more than 20 years with more than 300 starts, 27-plus wins, and career earnings far in excess of $6 million, in some of the most competitive racing series in the world, including 226 starts in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and runs in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, NASCAR Camping World Series, IMSA GTS and GTU, Champ Car, IROC and SCCA Trans-Am. Wally has driven for some of the biggest names in motorsports, including Jack Roush, Rick Hendrick and Richard Petty.

His racing highlights include four class wins at the grueling Rolex 24 at Daytona, three class wins at the 12 Hours of Sebring, two SCCA Trans-Am Series championships (was the youngest ever champion at a mere 22 years of age) and an open-wheel class win at the Pike Peak International Hill Climb.

In 2001, NBC / TNT lured Wally away from full time driving and into the TV broadcast booth as an expert on-camera NASCAR commentator. He has also announced for the American Le Mans Series (ALMS), Champ Car World Series (CCWS), and the Championship Off Road Racing Series (CORR), among others.

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For more information about the Wally Dallenbach Jr. Foundation, please visit www.wallydallenbachjrfoundation.com or contact Dan Passe at dan@passeconsulting.com 704-634-9022.