Boys & Girls Clubs of America

Boys & Girls Clubs of America and NASCAR Partnership: Driving Hands-on STEM Learning  

Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) is the largest youth development nonprofit in the country, serving more than 3.5 million youth annually. The organization profoundly impacts young people and their families in a variety of ways, particularly in character and leadership development, academic support, and workforce readiness.  

The BGCA-NASCAR partnership provides youth with career exploration STEM learning opportunities, so Club members learn that if they apply themselves academically it’s possible to find fun and rewarding careers. At select Clubs around the U.S., NASCAR offers an immersive experience where Boys & Girls Club kids do hands-on activities and become excited about STEM-related careers. 

Rosica was charged with promoting a NASCAR-BGCA activation, an event at Boys & Girls Clubs of Chicago, to bring awareness to this amazing program through public relations. This was executed just prior to the Chicago Street Race, which NASCAR was looking to grow. 

Our seasoned PR team knows that visuals are the key to generating multiple media placements in a challenging market like Chicago – and we saturated the market with tens of millions of earned media impressions! 

We seamlessly worked with our client-partner, BGCA, and NASCAR to tell the story through numerous mediagenic, highly visual event elements. These included 150 kids, a NASCAR driver appearing at a Club and speaking in front of the Chicago Street Race Pace Car, racecar simulators that kids could “test drive,” a module where Club members could design a racetrack, and an expert who spoke with young people about NASCAR career opportunities and how vital STEM is to racing. Along with the thrill and fun of the experience, they learned what being an engineer or mechanic would be like and saw real life STEM and engineering careers come to life. In addition, these youth received family passes to attend the NASCAR Street Race. 

Our publicity results swept Chicago and ran nationally. They included all network affiliate TV stations in Chicago plus stories on an independent TV station in Chicago and FOX. We secured an article in the Chicago Tribune with an additional photo montage that ran two days later. The story ran on Chicago’s NPR affiliate station along with other radio stations in the market. An article we secured on Yahoo! brought the event nationwide attention. 

Our story came to life through the voices and faces of the kids-turned-race car drivers. One fifth grader said she loved participating in the event and learning about math and science because, she “just couldn’t resist the speed!”