Nationally known hot rod driver Melanie Troxel made a pit stop Tuesday 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 non-profit organization helping children transition from hospitals, nursing homes and rehabilitation centers back to their homes or to new homes with adoptive parents.

Kimberly Smith/AJC/ (ENLARGE)

Isaiah White, age 11, (left) of Duluth, looks over as NHRA funny car driver Melanie Troxel autographs a t-shirt for him during a visit to Dream House's offices.

Kimberly Smith/AJC/ (ENLARGE)

Laura Kate Coker, age 3, of Berkeley Lake, receives some help getting out of the cockpit of an NHRA funny car from its driver, Melanie Troxel. Waiting to help Coker is ProCare Rx team member Brent Brooks. ProCare Rx owns and sponsors the car.

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"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 will race in a car emblazoned with the Dream House logo in the NHRA Southern Nationals Friday through Sunday at the Atlanta Dragway in Commerce. As she zips down the track in front of a bevy of fans and an ESPN television audience, her car's logo will help spread the word about the scores of special needs children who need assistance or adoption.

Isaiah White, 11, could hardly wait for classes to end at Duluth Middle School so he could head to Snellville to meet the hot rod driver.

He got her autograph and then closely examined her car's engine, which propels her car from zero to 330 mph in about 4.7 seconds. "It's cool," he said.

The sixth-grader loves all types of sports and through Dream House he has gone on outings to Thrashers, Hawks and Gladiator games.

His own hobbies are centered around sports, including skateboarding and bicycling, but his illness often sidelines him, his mother, Cheryll White, said.

Isaiah has subglottic stenosis and tracheal malasia, respiratory diseases which have lead to the early onset of emphysema and other complications.

He spent the first four years of his life hospitalized and has endured 23 surgeries.

"He's been through a lot," his mother said.

Through Dream House, Isaiah has met other kids 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 single mom.

Many of the Dream House kids have been abandoned by their families and are searching for homes.

Last year, a Berkeley Lake family adopted Laura Kate Coker, who turns 3 next month.

Laura Kate was born 24 weeks premature and had a heart defect and damaged lungs and intestines. She has nearly died twice, but kept on 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 witnessed the many ways 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 in 37 Georgia counties, Kim Marks, Dream House's development manager said.