Manchester Ky Newspaper

Harvicks find novel ways to enrich children's lives

SPARTA, Ky.—The baseball game was five days away, and DeLana Harvick already was throwing down the gauntlet.

As she stood in the No. 33 KHI transporter last Friday at Kentucky Speedway, Harvick was talking some good-natured trash about her husband and Sprint Cup driver Kevin Harvick as a prelude to a charity event scheduled in conjunction with Wednesday’s Eastern League All-Star Game in Manchester, N.H.

“We’re actually on competing teams for this home run derby. Some of the kids are on my team, and I think (FOX and TNT pit reporter) Matt Yocum’s on Kevin’s team. It’s a toss-up. I honestly don’t know who’s going to win this.”

As part of the event hosted by longtime Kevin Harvick Inc. sponsor Rheem and The Kevin Harvick Foundation, Kevin will drive a show car around the warning track and throw out the first pitch.

“He’s actually done the Yankees first pitch before, back in 2001, and he actually got it across the plate,” DeLana said. “I think he’s scheduled to go up in another week or two to do that again as well. He’s a big Yankees fan.”

Rheem and the foundation also have provided tickets to members of the Boys and Girls Club of Manchester for Saturday’s Nationwide Series race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon. The all-star game and the race are part of a broader foundation initiative that focuses on children.

The Harvicks don’t have children of their own, and neither came from money, but they have earned success in racing—Kevin as a driver at stock car racing’s highest level, DeLana as a driving force behind the Camping World Truck Series and Nationwide teams they own and manage.

“Kevin and I realize how fortunate we are, and we realize the big impact that a lot of people had on our lives when we were younger, so the focus of the foundation is to positively enrich the lives of children,” DeLana said.

In association with Kevin’s former Cup sponsor Shell/Pennzoil, the Harvicks provided educational opportunities and at-track experiences to disadvantaged children. Even though Shell has moved on, to be replaced by Budweiser on the hood of the No. 29 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, the Kevin’s Krew program has continued under the aegis of the foundation’s Chase Your Dream scholarships.

Children submit essays to compete for $500 stipends to pursue activities outside typical classroom curriculum.

Relatives - Manchester Evening News

Relatives of an Manchester lecturer and his family who were brutally murdered in their own home today described the "terrible" impact of the deaths, and said they were confident the killer would be caught.

MMU lecturer Jifeng "Jeff" Ding, his wife Helen and their two daughters Alice, 12, and 18-year-old Xing were found stabbed to death in Wootton, Northampton, on Sunday May 1 after being killed on Friday April 29.

Police are still hunting prime suspect Anxiang Du, 52, in connection with the murders.

Mr Ding's brother Jixiang revealed the trauma suffered by their parents in China.

"They are almost afraid of picking up a phone call," he said.

"You call them, you try to say something nice to make them feel better, but that itself reminds them of my brother and sister-in-law and their grandchildren.

"That just reopens a wound and that is just terrible. I still don't know how to help them in that regard and that is the most difficult part."

The biology professor, from Kentucky in the US, also told of his own difficulty in coming to terms with the killings.

"I actually found out from the internet. I was completely shocked, I could not finish the news story once I saw the pictures.

"I could not believe that four people were gone. I mean it is just complete shock and I cannot accept in a way that it is reality."

He added that he had confidence in the police and believed the person responsible would be punished "sooner or later".

Du was a previous business associate of the couple - their relationship had soured and was the subject of a court case which reached a climax the week of the murders, police said.

It is thought he may have travelled to London in a Vauxhall Corsa that went missing from the family's home and was later found in a side street in St John's Wood in the capital.

Jixiang Ding said he had "many questions" to ask Du about what happened on April 29.

"For a long time, even now, emotionally I don't want to hear his name. But if he really did this - so far he is just a suspect - but if he really did this I have many, many, many questions to ask him.

"I want to ask him how could you stab a knife into an innocent girl's heart, not once but twice. How could you do that (to) an innocent girl?

"I also want to know what he is feeling or whether he has any feelings when he saw the girls' expressions."

Mrs Ding's sister-in-law Li Zhu, who lives in China, appealed for help in finding the person responsible for the deaths.

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