A visit and tour of Front Row Motorsports‘ NASCAR facilities in Statesville on Monday turned into an emotional, surprise gifting for a military veteran from Charlotte who was paralyzed from the waist down in an April accident. Chuck Wesson, formerly a Sgt. 1st Class of the U.S. Army, lost all feeling and movement in his legs after a hit-and-run driver struck him from behind, breaking his back, on a city street outside of Fort Campbell, an army base located astraddle the Kentucky-Tennessee border where Wesson was stationed. While the 34-year-old Wesson has been rehabbing the past several months, he got hooked up with the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP), a nonprofit organization that works to foster a sense of community and bring aid to wounded soldiers. He said a WWP representative found him the first day he started rehab, about a week-and-a-half after surgery. Unbeknownst to Wesson, WWP had been working behind the scenes the past month planning something special for him. WWP invited Wesson to Front Row Motorsports, which employs NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racers #34-David Ragan, #38-David Gilliland and #26-Josh Wise, for what Wesson was told would be lunch and a tour of the facility, where around 20 race cars are stored and maintained. But the real surprise was the unveiling of the gift of a hand-cycle, a three-wheeled apparatus operated by the arms, to Wesson. Wesson was led around Front Row Motorsports ‘ shop by Ragan, who connected with WWP last fall. WWP organized a quail hunt for a group of six wounded veterans for which Ragan donated the use of his land and time in southern Georgia.(Statesville Record & Landmark)(7-17-2012)
