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About
Race for Safety - About Beat the Heat Inc. - National
Mission - History - Funding
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Race for Safety / Beat the Heat is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated
to promoting traffic safety, drug and alcohol awareness, and building relationships
between firefighters, police officers, and kids of all ages; to make the public
aware of the human, caring side of firefighters and police officers.
Businesses, corporations, foundations, and individuals are welcome to make an investment in the future of our youth throughout Arizona and the Southwest. You can choose to sponsor your favorite car or you can contribute to the organization's general fund. Contributions of money, services, and products are always welcome and needed. All donations are tax deductible.
Contributions to Race for Safety / Beat the Heat will be used to run and promote our life safety team. Contributions to the general fund go toward insurances, taxes, and events involving all communities.
Beat the Heat, Inc. is a "Firefighters and Kids" or "Cops and
Kids" orientated program which brings the young people together with the
firefighters (or Police Officers) who are there to help them. It gives both
groups an opportunity to closely interact with each other so that each group
can learn from the other things that will really make a difference for both
groups in the community.
The theme or our
program is "RACING FOR EDUCATION."
Three of our four goals state specifically a goal of some kind of education.
Many of the problems of our society today stem from the fact that many people
are lacking in education. We can only make an attempt with the adults to get
them to use their heads and think before they do something. However, we CAN
get the attention of the young people and they are very capable of learning.
We try to encourage those young people to STAY IN SCHOOL AND OFF DRUGS AND ALCOHOL.
Race for Safety also stresses seatbelt, car seat, airbag, and helmet safety.
Beat the Heat, Inc. also offers alternative extra curricular activities for those youngsters who may not be able to make the sports teams in high school. Handicap Drag Racing is a sport in which ANYONE who can drive can participate on a fair and equal basis with everyone else. Your only limitation is your own ability to learn the technique and DO IT!
To help educate
the young people of our communities about the real problems of illegal drug
and alcohol use.
To educate everyone of the horrors of alcohol or drug impaired driving.
To promote a better understanding between the Police and Firefighters and the communities they serve.
To educate the general public about racing, and encourage everyone not to race in the street.
The original Beat the Heat Program was started by Sgt. Don Robertson of the
Jacksonville, Florida Sheriff's Department in 1984.
In 1990, Senior Corporal Mac Sibley of the Dallas Police Department brought the program to Texas and, with the help of the Duncanville Police Department, expanded the program and built on the start that Sgt. Robertson had begun.
The program started with two cars in 1990. In 1991, it expanded to a third car from the Sulphur Springs, Texas Police Department.
In 1992, the volunteer police officers incorporated the program receiving tax-exempt status from the IRS under section 501(c)(3) of the IRS code. The program also received tax-exempt status from the Comptroller of the State of Texas. That year the program grew to five cars.
In 1993, the program grew to 18 cars representing 15 Police Agencies from around the state of Texas. There were ten more officers from the Houston area that formed a Gulf Coast Beat the Heat Division. In 1993, the officers participated in over 40 events around the state where they were in direct contact with over 50,000 young people.
In 1994, the program grew to over 25 cars and the Drag Cops participated in over 50 events contacting almost 100,000 young people. It also won a prestigious CRIMINAL JUSTICE AWARD from the Texas Attorney General's Office for its work with young people in the Prevention Category. The Drag Cops also worked, hands on, with well over 100,000 young people in 1994.
In 1995, the program
grew beyond the borders of the State of Texas with over 35 officers and cars
participating representing 30 Police Agencies in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.
The 1995 Schedule of Events grew to over 100 different events around the country
by the time the year was over.
There were 41 participants in the 5TH ANNUAL BEAT THE HEAT CHALLENGE at the
Texas Motorplex and over 6,000 spectators were in the stands. This was the largest
spectator crowd to ever attend a regular Saturday night bracket race in the
history of the Motorplex. Easily half of the spectators were young people. That's
what we are all about.
In 1996, the program continued to grow and had over 50 members representing 42 agencies in 8 states. The 1996 Schedule included over 150 events. Less than 10% of those events were races. The rest were the kind of events with kids that properly achieved our goals. The HEAT Team contacted, one to one, over 360,000 young people during the year.
In 1997, the program expanded nationwide in order to unite the efforts all the Public Safety Officers who give of themselves to the kids. We will supply support and information for all these dedicated Public Servants. We will also provide guidance to other officers who desire to begin programs of their own. The membership grew to over 100 officers who contacted over 500,000 kids at over 300 events.
In 1998, the program has grown into the 27th state with over 150 members. Our goal was to contact a million kids this year if we could. We succeeded in contacting almost 700,000 kids at just under 500 different events.
In 1999, Beat the Heat, Inc. associated itself with the National Street Car Association (NSCA) whose principles are closely aligned with ours. NSCA provides a place for street racers to get off the street and on the track to race their cars. NSCA also provided a venue for Beat the Heat, Inc. to deliver its message to more people all over the country. NSCA had a Beat the Heat Class at every NSCA event in 1999.
ESPN covered all the NSCA events and had 30-minute programs shown on national television. This was valuable publicity for the program as well. Besides the young people who were exposed to the program through the TV media, our members succeeded in contacting over 1,301,000 kids at over 750 events.
In 2000, the members of Beat the Heat, Inc. continued to work with many thousands of young people all over the United States and Canada. They went to more schools, did more displays and contacted over 1,304,000 kids. The Beat the Heat World Finals was moved westward to Bowling Green, Kentucky where we had the largest collection of drag racing police cars ever assembled. Membership grew to 171 members in 30 states and 2 Canadian Provinces.
FUNDING
All funds come from the donations from sponsors and individual donors who desire
to see the Goals of the Program met. NO TAX DOLLARS are spent by any agency
we represent. Since ALL participants are volunteers, over 98% of all funding
go directly to operate the program. Several of the officers have trading cards
printed. These have proved to be great items to present to the kids to remind
them about the principles of the program.
Funding is needed for just about everything. We need pamphlets, pictures, trading cards, T-shirts, caps, and any other items that we can hand out to the kids. It is very important that they have something to remind them of our message.
In 1997, 1998, and 1999, the program sponsored a CHALLENGE SERIES for Firefighters and Police Officers all over the country to gather and display their programs and race the cars for the title of "TOP COP". The last event at Gainesville Raceway in Florida was the WORLD FINALS where we crowned a true National Champion for the program. All the officers and Firefighters that participated in these events volunteered to do so knowing there were no monetary prizes. They participated at their own expense just to try to make a real difference for the kids.
The members of the program contacted over 245,000 young people in 1995 delivering our educational message. In 1996, we worked with over 300,000 kids. That number grew to well over 500,000 in 1997. In 1998, that number pushed 700,000. In 1999, we contacted 1,301,780 kids in over 750 events. Our activities continued to grow in 2000 making over 1.3 million kid contacts. We can document that we made a difference for many of these young people and we did it very economically, spending less than ONE DOLLAR per child. Try to imagine what we might be able to do if we were able to spend 2 or 3 dollars per child! Although there are some administrative costs, they amount to less than 2% of the entire budget. We are very proud that these expenses are kept at a bare minimum.
The volunteer firefighters and police officers will drive well over 300,000 miles each year to participate in all these events. We DO NOT charge a fee for our appearances. We find that most of the time the organizations that really need our services have no budget to supply any funding to help us. That is why they need our help in the first place. It is our intention to keep working with the young people as long as we possibly can and hope that we can get enough help from sponsors and donors to keep us going.