Walmart Showcases Racing Boats for a Great Cause

Thursday afternoon, Walmart patrons pulling into the parking lot at Walmart, 5154 Knickerbocker Rd., were in for a special treat. Power boats that will race in this weekend's boat races at Lake Nasworthy were lined up in the parking lot with tents from Sam’s Club and Walmart set up in front of the store. A yellow Children's Miracle Network balloon flanked the tents. Added to the mix was a Texas Fire Food Truck.

Walmart store manager Daniel Harris set the tone. He was enthusiastic and did not stop.

"We came up with the idea to showcase the racing boats and have donation buckets for the Children's Miracle Network here to raise awareness and funding," Harris said.

Harris was honored that Mayor Brenda Gunter and City Manager Daniel Valenzuela came out to lend the city leadership's support. 

This is the 33rd year of Sam’s Club and Walmart’s annual fundraiser event to benefit Shannon Medical Center and more specifically, Children’s Miracle Network.

“San Angelo, last year, our stores combined contributed $45,000 towards the Children’s Miracle Network. Since 1987, the Wal-Mart and Sam's Club Corporation has raised over a billion dollars for CMN,” Harris said.

Harris continued talking about all the people involved and how much that means to him.

“One of the biggest things about, especially what we’re doing here at this store, is the Children’s Miracle Network. CMN has partnered with Shannon Hospital and then also partnered with David Carroll Racing. Those two entities (CMN and David Carroll Racing) plus Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and with Mayor Gunter and Mr. Valenzuela being here, we’re able to bring all the entities of the city together.”

“David Carroll showing his power boats while still donating to the Children’s Miracle Network and having food trucks out here donating as well. Walmart, Sam’s Club, and the City of San Angelo coming together… that's the sense of community coming together, using all available networks working together,” Harris continued.

Mayor Brenda Gunter added, “We always say no event is successful unless you have great partnerships. Regardless of whether it’s Goodfellow Air Force Base, the City of San Angelo, Walmart, Shannon Hospital… all good things happen when people partner with each other and everyone brings their best resources to the table. We’re believers not only in the project but the people in the project. We want to continue to develop great relationships with our community, through our businesses, through the activities that happen, through the community that needs support. We must have great partnerships. That’s how we succeed.”

Daniel Valenzuela added to that by saying, “You work with the county, the school district, Goodfellow Air Force Base, Shannon Hospital. We know that we all pull together. It’s the resiliency and we’re all a team. We have outstanding citizens as well who have been very supportive. When Daniel (Harris) invited us down here and told us what this specifically meant to Walmart. To embrace that and the community and what that’s done, we definitely want to be here to support that.”

The mayor is also excited about San Angelo hosting this weekend's boat races.

“It’s a great event. We’ve got a lake that we really are proud of and think that we need to have lots of activities out at that lake. It’s a blessing to have. It’s a great asset and we’re glad we have things like these boat races to entertain people. To make people really appreciate Lake Nasworthy.” said Mayor Gunter. 

The COVID-19 pandemic was brought up and addressed as well.

“So many things happened, so many things impacted our lives and none of us could have succeeded at what we needed to do without the partnerships and relying on all the community and our business partners to make sure we moved ahead. We did it successfully because we were all in the same boat.” Mayor Gunter said. 

Harris added, “Now with the vaccine, we’re able to have that autonomy to get back into the community. Getting back to having all these different organizations coming together for that specific partnership for the Children’s Miracle Network. Here in San Angelo we have hundreds of miracle kids. We’re really just trying to have that connection and show that diversity throughout our community.”