... for a great evening of racing

Last January, the Community School of the Arts was informed that Deano's Sports Complex was not going to open for business.

The third annual Go-Arts! Go-Karts! race was in jeopardy of not happening.

Without it, CSA loses scholarships, guest artists who teach our youth, the ability to afford new equipment and space and basic operating costs that could potentially put us out of business if we don't come up with something.

That's when the city stepped up.

Big thanks go to Mayor Wayne Seybold, Jay Julian and the redevelopment commission for encouraging us to not lose hope.

They agreed to help us secure the track, which was incredibly kind and helpful.

We now had a track, but without cars we still don't have a race.

We tried to rent them, but to no avail.

So we priced them everywhere, and the best we could come up with was $1,500 a car out of Ohio.

Having CSA buy eight cars for that much money defeats the purpose of a fundraiser, so the kind folks from Auto Pros, Blinn Enterprises, Barry Bunker Chevrolet-Cadillac, Matthews Buick-Pontiac-GMC Truck, Mike Anderson Chevrolet, Ray Harris Chrysler-Jeep, Reese Motors and Southworth Ford-Lincoln-Mercury all stepped up and each bought a car.

But we still needed drivers, race sponsors and corporate sponsors to provide the action. Eighty-three businesses signed up to race and help.

The race was all set to go, but the facility, which had been closed for a year, was in terrible shape with overgrown vegetation and leftover trash. Once again, the city called in the cavalry, and the parks department, street department and sheriff's inmate cleanup crew did a spectacular job and made that place look better than ever.

Then Indiana Michigan Power Co. gave us power, and the water company gave us running water.

As we hit race day, and all the kind volunteers and participants were ready to race, one last obstacle stood in our way - the weather.

All reports looked as though this event would be postponed yet again.

But someone from up above clearly looked out for us and gave us a beautiful evening.

What was once an incredible obstacle course became a fantastic road to success, thanks to all of you in Grant County who helped.