#17-Matt Kenseth took time out of his work schedule on Thursday morning at Texas Motor Speedway to visit with teenagers from Dallas / Ft. Worth area middle schools and after-school programs to teach them about teamwork, achievement, and the importance of making a difference in their community. The national educational initiative called ‘Ameriquest Soaring Dreams Youth Program’ is a partnership between Ameriquest Mortgage Company, non-profit organization Portraits of Hope and Roush Racing that bring together youth from schools, hospitals and after-school programs to explore personal goals and societal issues through education and art. Portraits of Hope is an organization that develops creative projects merging the healing arts with inspirational public art. Middle schoolers from Boles Jr. High School (Arlington), Dunbar 6th Grade Middle School (Ft. Worth) and Girl’s Inc., a non-profit youth organization based in Arlington, participated in the program. As part of the interactive workshop, teens and Kenseth shared their creative expressions by creating murals replicating the shapes and colors depicted on Kenseth’s #17 Ameriquest Soaring Dreams race car that he will drive in Saturday’s NASCAR Busch Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. This is the second of four Ameriquest Soaring Dreams workshops and paint schemes this year. Last month in Bristol, Kenseth’s teammate, Carl Edwards, participated in the Ameriquest Soaring Dreams workshop with a local high school. Mark Martin will do so later this month in Phoenix (Apr. 20) and Greg Biffle at Dover (May 30). Ameriquest Mortgage Company is the primary sponsor of four of Roush Racing’s NBS teams in 2006, which includes Kenseth, Edwards, Martin and Biffle.(Alan Taylor Communications)(4-7-2006)
