The Camel City Track Foundation is a 501(c)3 organization formed to create awareness and promote health, physical fitness and the opportunity to achieve competitive excellence by encouraging participation in track and field, long distance running and race walking.  The Foundation will provide educational opportunities for the general public relating to the sport of track and field, training, physical fitness and safety.

The Foundation will support and develop amateur athletes for participation in national and international competitions in track and field, long distance running and race walking.  The Foundation will do so by organizing and promoting track and field in the region to give amateur athletes more opportunities for competition for all ages and levels.

The Foundation will seek to accomplish its mission through four main programs.

1. Organizing Track and Field Competitions
2. Track and Field Clinics
3. Track and Field Officials’ Certification
4. Support for Professional Track and Field Athletes and Events

Organizing Track and Field Competitions

Funds raised, through local sponsors and general donations, by the Foundation will be used to organize and promote a number of track and field competitions aimed at benefiting amateur athletes in the region.  The funds generated will be used to cover some of the costs of conducting a first class track and field meet.  These costs can include the costs for timing services, officials, facility rental, equipment, etc.  Competitions will be conducted by meet officials and volunteers.  Many of these competitions will be during the indoor track and field season, which is the time of year that typically offers the least amount of opportunities for amateur athletes.

Track and Field Clinics

The Foundation, through general donations received, will work with available facilities to organize and conduct community track and field clinics.  These Clinics will provide opportunities for people of all ages to learn about the sport of track and field.  The Clinics will be available to the general public and will be conducted by  area coaches and athletes, who will educate the attendees about the sport of track and field, physical fitness, health and safety.  By educating attendees who otherwise might not have access to such opportunities, the Corporation hopes to make a positive impact on the health and exercise habits of attendees and give attendees the chance to be involved with positive role models and outcomes.

Officials’ Certification

The Foundation will provide opportunities for adults to become involved with the sport of track and field through certification as an official.  Track and field has a need for a large number for officials and volunteers to run its events.  The Corporation has identified this as another way to promote the sport of track and field and physical fitness in the community.  If you have large numbers of athletes who wish to participate in events held in the region, but no one to staff those events, then those opportunities are limited.  These officials not only serve a function during the events, but they can also serve as ambassadors for the sport as well as positive role models for the competitors.  The Foundation will work with the state certification chair for USATF, the governing body of track and field, to identify one or two dates each year on which to hold a certification course in Winston-Salem and provide the facility free of cost by utilizing general funds raised.

Support for Professional Track and Field Athletes and Events

Funds raised, through corporate and local sponsors and private donations, by the Foundation will also be used to organize a track and field event in which professional track and field athletes will compete alongside amateur athletes.  The majority of participants in the event will be amateur athletes.  The purpose for involving professional athletes in the event will be to provide additional competition to give amateur athletes from the region an improved chance of qualifying for national championships.  More specifically, collegiate athletes from area universities would have the unique opportunity to compete against world class athletes.  The Foundation will organize the event and recruit professional athletes to compete in the event and help offset their travel costs or pay an appearance fee or prize money.   This event will also have a considerable impact on the awareness level of the sport of track and field in the community by having them participate in a community outreach program with a local school, in hopes to draw attention to the sport and get more youth (and people of all ages) involved in the sport, a decision that can have lifelong positive benefits for their health, their education, and their lives.