A racetrack and its local horsepeople banded together in the second half of 2015 to raise more than $47,000 to an area food bank.
It was announced on Monday (January 4) that Tioga Downs and the Southern Tier Harness Horsemen’s Association had teamed up to donate over $47,000 to the Food Bank of the Southern Tier, with customers pitching in with over 2,700 cans of non-perishable food items through the month of October.
“On behalf of everyone at Tioga Downs, we wanted to make sure that as many families as possible were able to enjoy turkeys at Thanksgiving and substantial Christmas dinners,” said Jeff Gural, chairman of Tioga Downs.
From the reprise performance of Chubby Checker at Tioga in July, net ticket sales of $7,360 were donated to the Food Bank, along with $20,030 from Gural. Additionally, Tioga Downs and the Southern Tier Harness Horsemen’s Association each contributed $10,000 during the Thanksgiving season.
“We’ve always wanted to give back to the Southern Tier and help where we can, seeing that the Southern Tier supports us all during the racing season,” said Guy Howard, president of the Southern Tier Harness Horsemen’s Association.
(Tioga Downs)