Formula Smiles Foundation

Two years after its inaugural event, the Formula Smiles Foundation, which was led by current McLaren driver Juan Pablo Montoya and his wife, Connie Freydell, the second edition of the Race of Stars (Carrera de Estrellas) will take place this weekend in Cartagena. Here's some more information about the Fomula Smiles Foundation.

The Formula Smiles Foundation wants to improve the quality of life of the children of Colombia throughout sports, but above all, it wants to give an opportunity for them to smile. To try to burst the humanitarian instinct around the world and in Colombia , so that through sports we can give better life standards to our children. Thinking on them, the Foundation wants to offer the opportunity to be able to smile and to learn all the benefits that sports develop. Sports improve the quality of life and the development of the children: It teaches to them to work as a team, to share, to follow rules, to respect his companions and his rivals, it motivates them to fight for a goal, to demand more of themselves every day, and to establish goals. It takes them to a peaceful and healthy path in life. They want that the Colombian children have the opportunity to benefit from the accomplishments that practicing sports give, and that thought out these sports they practice, they become better people, but above all we want to give a reason to them to smile.

The Formula Smiles Foundation has several Programs:
One smiles

This program consists on visiting children ´s hospitals around the world. These visits will allow the Foundation to be closer to children that have different health problems on a funny and different approach. We give them presents, answer questions and paint their faces with smiles, putting their minds on a different place for a while.
-Melbourne , Australia : Ryal Children Hospital -Kuala-Lumpur, Malasia: Kuala Lumpur Public Hospital
-Sao Paulo , Brasil: Fundacion Hope. Here they receive children with Cancer problems with their familias while treatment. -Barcelona, España: Hospital Sant Joan de Déu -Bogotá , Colombia : Hospital Franklin Roosvelt -Bogotá, Colombia:Cami Usme y Cami Santa Librada

Its a competition that has been going on for some years, and gives opportunity to colombian children to let fly their imagination and design a helmet paint job for Formula 1 driver, Juan Pablo Montoya. The winner of each class will have the opportunity to travel to the Formula 1 Brazilian Grand Prix for an unforgettable experience. 2002: This was the first year of the competition. The winner of the contest was Julian Andres Restrepo, who was not only awarded with a fully paid trip to Indianapolis as a special guest of the Formula 1 Indy race, but also had his design painted on a real helmet that was later used by Juan Pablo at Brazil some moths later.
2003: This year we had a chance on the competition format, as two different classes were created, and the winners had the chance to travel to the Brazilian Grand Prix, same race where Juan Pablo used one of the two winner 's design.

Two Colombian kids had the chance to meet Juan Pablo Montoya on April 6 of 2004 at the Brazilian Grand Prix for being the winners of the "Echele cabeza al casco de Juan Pablo Montoya" contest; Ivonne Olivia Vasquez, age 16, and Daniel René Olave, age 11 where the ones who made the best designs on each class. The selection was made by Juan Pablo Montoya among hundreds of submissions. From the 2 winners, Ivonne 's design was the chosen one to be used by Juan Pablo on the third round of the Formula 1 world championship. In the future, this helmet will be auctioned internationally to raise funds for the Foundation. The 3 rd of April, Ivonne from Bogota and Daniel from Floridablanca (Santander), traveled with a companion each to the city of Sao Paulo , Brazil . They also had the privilege of walking the Formula 1 paddock and to personally meet Juan Pablo Montoya and also they had a special visit the BMW Williams team garage. Without a doubt, they had one of the greatest experiences on their lifes. 2004: We will be announcing the winners of the III edition of the "Echele cabeza al casco de Juan Pablo Montoya." Competition.

This project is the biggest and the most ambitious. Its focused on promoting the sports culture on Colombian public schools, so that youngsters that are not taking advantage of sports because of lack of facilities, have the opportunity to practice them. -Loma Fresca Neighborhood, Cartagena : As a gratitude gesture with the "Race of Stars" to the people of Cartagena , the Formula Smiles Foundation promised to help the more needed neighborhoods of this city, the Foundation accomplished the goal by renovating a park into a Multiple Sports Arena. This project had the support of the "Amigos de los Niños" foundation, and the IRD government institution. The renewed park of the neighborhood is going to be the place where some programs of the project will take place, such as teaching P.E classes, and Extra-curricular activities with specialized teachers. The programs that will take place on the park are: - Physical Education for the Education Institutions of the Area: The different schools, day cares & educational Institutions around the area will develop classes of P.E; Ana Maria Velez de Trujillo will be able to count with the P.E classes within her syllabus. Appart of providing an appropriate place to practice sports, the Foundation also has specialized teachers that will lecture the P.E topics under the codes & regulations of the National Educational Ministry. - Extra curricular Activities: Additionally and during after hours, the Loma Fresca population will be able to assist the park, where they always will have a space for activities under direction of P.E teachers that are designated by the Foundation, they are higly specialized personnel on the sports and recreation topic.

The 15 of November of the 2003 was the official launch of the Formula Smiles Foundation with the "Race of Stars". The "Race of Stars" was a race with celebrities on a street circuit located in the Historic Center of the city of Cartagena de Indias , Colombia from the 13 to the 15 of November of 2003. For this so special date they had presence of some the best pilots of world-wide motoring such as Formula One, CART, IRL and Formula 3000. Juan Pablo Montoya, Marc Gene, Pedro de la Rosa Antonio Pizzonia, Ricardo Sperafico, Scott Dixon, Adrian Fernandez, Felipe Giaffone, Mario Dominguez, Rodolfo Lavin, Robert Jose Guerrero and Roberto "Pupo" Moreno, were the drivers who took part from the event and supported our charity event. Ricardo Sperafico was the winner of the race, on a spectacular weekend. Because the support everyone gave to this event, the Formula Smiles Foundation had a superb inauguration, and this motivates us to continue working with the biggest commitment towards making Colombia a better country.
This weekend it's time for the second edition of the race of stars and again a lot of race celebrities will participate the charity karting event. ( http://www.f1technical.net/news/1274 )

"We want to improve the quality of life of the children of Colombia throughout sports"
More information on
http://www.formulasmiles.com

http://www.carreradeestrellas.com/