Morgan Shepherd's trip that keeps on giving

Morgan Shepherd remembers exactly when he became a Santa Claus of sorts.

The Morgan Shepherd Charitable Fund came from a conversation between Shepherd and his friend Ken Lanter in 1986 while they sat outside Shepherd’s race shop.

“I told Ken that I’d like to seek out a family that needed some help and help them at Christmas,” says Shepherd, a standout race-car driver since the ’60s. “Ken said, ‘Morgan, I got the perfect person.’”

Lanter told Shepherd about a 50-something Virginia man he’d met named Billy Shough. Lanter had asked Shough, who was hunched over and walked with a cane, what he’d do if he had $1,000.

Shough said he’d never had that kind of money, but, if he had it, he’d paint and fix the roof of his house trailer.

Shepherd knew $1,000 wouldn’t be enough, but he said, “That’s what we’ll do!”

Shough was making $20 a week working in Stuart, Va., at the Patrick (County) Association for Retarded Citizens Workshop, a private non-profit organization that provides handicapped adults with jobs and living skills. Shepherd visited PARC, and the next year he took gifts.

Shepherd was driving for Quaker State in ’86, so he called a friend and a painter, and they took a load of Quaker State racing merchandise to Shough’s house.

“Then we bought him a year’s supply of gift certificates for food from the grocery store,” Shepherd says, “and we called the oil company and asked them to fill the tank and send us the bill.”

The trip has grown from there. By the third year, Shepherd and his group ventured off to neighboring Galax, Va.

Santa Shepherd was on his way.

Each December since 1986, the Morgan Shepherd Charitable Fund has traveled to Virginia to deliver gift bags to handicapped persons and children. One year they bought a van for a handicapped young woman whose van had worn out. Another year — Shepherd says it was around 1997 — they found a woman, a polio victim, who lived in a small shack. They built her a 1,800-square-foot home.

He says they’ve gotten help from throughout the NASCAR community.

“Most everybody in racing knows that we have a charitable cause,” he said.

On the annual trips, there’s a lot of laughing, smiling, hugging, dancing and autograph signing. And Shepherd might do some skating, too. The racer is known for making some pretty fancy moves on skates in the NASCAR garage area.

Shepherd’s biggest fan at the PARC Workshop — and elsewhere — may be Jamie Marshall, a 40-something long-time client at PARC. He and Jamie dance every year, and they joke and laugh. Shepherd calls her “a very sweet girl,” but that might be said of most or all of the people they visit.

“There are always a lot of smiling faces, and all of them have that Virginia accent,” he said with a smile in his voice.

One year, they filled a bus with musicians, comedians, preachers, a radio personality, a Barney Fife impersonator, and, of course, drivers. In years past, Ken Schrader, Dennis Setzer, Kyle Petty, Ricky Rudd, Ned and Dale Jarrett, Coy Gibbs and Jeff Green and other drivers have joined the caravan. Country music’s Mark Collie and Kellie Pickler have been guests, and one assumes there was singing involved.

In 2006, Morgan and Cindy Shepherd presented PARC with a check for $12,000.

On one recent trip, they filled about 1,200 gift bags with racing t-shirts, jackets, die-cast cars, haulers, hats and more from the NASCAR Truck, Nationwide and Sprint Cup series. Local companies also contributed socks, gloves, candy, snacks, and Goody’s Headache Powder. They do a lot of planning to make sure the bags are safe for everyone.

“We used to make a lot of stops,” Shepherd says, “and we’d always have a preacher with us. It was really a lot of wear and tear on all of the people. This year it’ll be on the 19^th (of December). We’ll take gospel groups and drivers with us, and we’ll help people with heating oil and turn their power on.”

In past trips, they’ve battled chilly weather, rain and snow. As always, they’re hoping for shirt-sleeve weather this year.

“It’s a wonderful day, and it’s something we look forward to all year,” says Shepherd, who still lives on Springs Road in Hickory. “We prepare during the race season for this moment. It all comes down to crunch time right now to pull it all together.”