Union teams with Pacific Raceways to raise $43,000 for charity

KENT – Machinists Union District Lodge 751 and Pacific Raceways recently celebrated seven years of partnership in charity work.

The union presented Speedway owners with an oversized ceremonial check for $42,905, which is the amount of money they’ve raised together to benefit Guide Dogs of America.

In each of the past seven years, District 751 Machinists have sold discount tickets to drag racing events at Pacific Raceways. All proceeds from those ticket sales – nearly $43,000 — have gone to Guide Dogs of America, which is a California-based charity that provides service dogs and training in their use free of charge to blind or vision-impaired people across the United States and Canada.

“Pacific Raceways and the Fiorito Family have been great partners,” said Robley Evans, the vice president of Machinists Union Local Lodge 751-F and the chairman of District 751’s Pacific Raceways event committee. “Thanks to them, we’ve been able to make a real difference in people’s lives, and we’ve had a good time doing it.”

Originally formed in 1935 to represent hourly workers at the Boeing Co., District Lodge 751 of the International Association of Machinists & Aerospace Workers now represents some 33,000 working men and women at 48 employers across Washington, Oregon and California. In 2011, members of the Machinists Volunteer Program gave more than 10,000 hours of their time to community service, while other volunteers collected more than $263,000 for Guide Dogs of America, the union’s charity of choice.

For more information about District 751, read the Machinists News.