In April, nationally known hot-rod driver Melanie Troxel made a pit stop in Snellville at a charity for medically fragile children.
Troxel, head of the Gotham City Racing Team, showed off her white Dodge Charger Nitro funny car to some of the kids at the corporate headquarters of Dream House for Medically Fragile Children Inc., a nonprofit organization that helps children transition from hospitals, nursing homes and rehabilitation centers back to their homes or to new homes with adoptive parents.
 File photo | ||
| Laura Kate Coker, 3, receives some help getting out of the cockpit of an NHRA funny car from driver Melanie Troxel. Waiting to help Coker is ProCare Rx team member Brent Brooks. ProCare Rx, which owns and sponsors the car, supports Dream House for Medically Fragile Children. | ||
|
"It's important," Troxel said. "We hope to bring local and national awareness to help the kids whose parents can't or won't care for them."
Troxel was in town to race in the NHRA Southern Nationals at the Atlanta Dragway in Commerce. As she zipped down the track in front of a bevy of fans and an ESPN television audience, her car, emblazoned with the Dream House logo, helped spread the word about the scores of special-needs children who need assistance or adoption.
Isaiah White, 11, got Troxel's autograph and then closely examined her car's engine, which propels the vehicle from zero to 330 mph in about 4.7 seconds.
"It's cool," he said.
Isaiah loves sports, and through Dream House he has gone to Thrashers, Hawks and Gladiators games.
His hobbies are centered around sports, including skateboarding and bicycling, but his illness often sidelines him, said his mother, Cheryll White.
Isaiah has subglottic stenosis and tracheal malasia, respiratory diseases which have led to the early onset of emphysema and other complications.
He spent the first four years of his life hospitalized and has endured 23 surgeries.
Through Dream House, Isaiah has met other children who understand what he's going through and who don't stare at the scars on his throat.
The organization also provides resources and support to Isaiah's mother, who is single.
Many of the Dream House children have been abandoned by their families and are searching for homes.
Last year, a Berkeley Lake family adopted Laura Kate Coker, who turned 3 in May.
Laura Kate was born 24 weeks premature and had a heart defect and damaged lungs and intestines. She has nearly died twice, but keeps fighting. Now she has two loving parents and three older siblings, and she loves to sing and dance, her mother, Kelly Coker said.
The little girl is named after pediatric nurse Laura Moore, the Dream House founder who cared for her and found her a home. Moore believed that the needs of sick children weren't being met and founded Dream House in 2001 in Lilburn.
The charity moved the corporate offices to Snellville earlier this year. Since its inception, Dream House has helped 815 families and caregivers and 796 children, said Kim Marks, Dream House's development manager.
— This article is a reprint from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Vote for this story!