CARS AND K9S at Danville’s NAPA Saturday, April 19th to Benefit MISSION K9 WARRIOR

 ABOVE: NAPA Operations Manager Brian Tallman, NAPA Director of Outside Sales Derrick Hufford, and Mission K9 Warrior Chairman Neal Stephens during a recent visit to CIMG’s Danville studios.

A Saturday, April 19th event will be great for those who love race cars, love dogs; and most importantly, want to support our Veterans.  CARS AND K9S will take place from 9 AM to 1 PM on the 19th, outside the Danville NAPA at 303 North Gilbert.  This is a fundraiser for Mission K9 Warriors, which provides highly trained service K9s to combat Veterans.

NAPA Operations Manager Brian Tallman says this will be a fun day, and a chance to help a very important cause.

AUDIO: To help people more understand what the organization does, who they do it for, why they do it; to help bring in donations for them, and also introduce Veterans to an avenue they may not have known was available at the time.

As far as the dirt track racing cars that will be there, NAPA Director of Outside Sales Derrick Hufford is a big part of the local racing community.  And guys that compete on dirt from Farmer City to Charleston are scheduled to stop by.

AUDIO: We sponsor some of the cars.  Some of the guys that have agreed to come; just because they have family members that are Veterans, and just want to help support the cause.  I personally know all these people; they just want to help out, and raise awareness and money for this fund that everybody wants to support.

And when it comes Mission K9 Warrior; current Chairman Neal Stephens explained that founder Dave Hughes noticed a lack of support for Veterans, combined with a high suicide rate.  And the effort to raise funding for a highly trained service dog grew into funding for many service dogs, including one that came to Neal Stephens.

AUDIO: So instead of giving up at one dog, Dave Hughes decided to move to American Legion Post 203 in Georgetown.  And that was the home of Mission K9 Warrior, and since then we’ve put 32 dogs out with Veterans.  Mission K9 helped me out.  So when I received dog 17, I asked if there I was anything I could do to help out with Mission K9, and I became one of their board members.

And today as chairman, Neal Stephens and others from Mission K9 Warrior would like to meet you on April 19th at NAPA’s CARS AND K9S event.  But in the meantime, you can learn more by going to missionk9warrior.org, or calling 217-601-3184.  You can also ask about the RIDE TO THRIVE motorcycle ride fundraiser, set for 9 AM; Saturday, May 3rd.  It starts at Andrae’s Harley Davidson in Champaign, and ends in Georgetown at American Legion Post 203.