Rinus VeeKay will have a new livery for next month’s GMR Grand Prix on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course after Ed Carpenter Racing announced a partnership with Building Tomorrow, an international not-for-profit organization supporting literacy and numeracy in Uganda.
Building Tomorrow and ECR have launched a “Ride with Rinus” campaign, where donations of $75 can feature the contributor’s name on VeeKay’s No. 21 Chevrolet entry.
According to the press release, “Donations will benefit Building Tomorrow’s Roots to Rise program, a foundational learning initiative teaching basic literacy and numeracy skills based on students’ learning level, not age. A donation of just $75 will give contributors the opportunity to put their name on VeeKay’s No. 21 Building Tomorrow Chevrolet and allow five children to enroll in an upcoming Roots to Rise camp. With the goal of adding 1,500 names to the racecar, Building Tomorrow would be able to support 7,500 children in Uganda and help them get their education back on track after two years without formal schooling.”
Donations can be made online at BT.TEAM.
Building Tomorrow was founded in 2006, with the aim to improve learning outcomes in underserved communities throughout Uganda. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, an estimated 1.2 million children were out of schools. The country has since been hit with the longest continuous school closures in the world as a result of the pandemic, with some 10 million children out of school for nearly two years. Roots to Rise, a literacy and numeracy program delivered from Building Tomorrow, is a partnership focused in local communities that helped reach more than 40,000 children in 2021, and is expected to reach over 100,000 for this year.
“We’re delighted to partner with Ed Carpenter Racing to raise funds and awareness for the learning crisis in Uganda,” said George Srour, Co-Founder and Chief Dreamer of Building Tomorrow. “With this partnership, we’re giving anyone who wants to support literacy and numeracy – basic skills so many Ugandan kids haven’t had the chance to master – the opportunity to do so, and in return they get the chance to ‘Ride With Rinus’ on May 14.”
VeeKay, now in his third season in the NTT IndyCar Series, is the defending race winner of the GMR Grand Prix
Building Tomorrow and ECR’s “Ride With Rinus” campaign will be active for the next month, closing on April 30, 2022.
The 2022 GMR Grand Prix will be broadcast live on NBC, beginning at 3 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 14.