Community Corner
NASCAR Driver TJ Bell Partners with Megan Meier Foundation
O'Fallon mom's campaign against cyberbullying gets a boost from the NASCAR driver.
The Toyota Camry with No. 50 on its side will be speeding around the track in the Sprint Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at the Charlotte Motor Speedway Sunday and promoting a cause with deep roots in Dardenne Prairie and St. Charles County.
The GreenSmoke.com Camry will wear a logo for the Megan Meier Foundation. On Oct. 17, 2006, Megan Meier committed suicide as a result of cyberbullying on a popular social media website.
Since then, her mother Tina has fought a battle to change the bullying laws in this country, meeting with lawmakers and President Barack Obama. The foundation has made national headlines and brought the age-old problem of bullying to the forefront.
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Bell's car wears the foundation's logo to raise awareness about what bullying can do to a person and how to get help.
“People who haven’t gone through it or haven't had children who have experienced it don’t understand how traumatic it can be or the impact,” Meier said, taking a break from a speaking engagement in Philadelphia. “It’s not so easy to just shut things up.”
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Meier, a resident of O’Fallon, MO (formerly of Dardenne Prairie), met Lloyd Wideman, also a Missouri native (Marthasville) who now lives in Charlotte, NC and works with TJ Bell Racing. The two were able to put together a plan that would help to spread the foundation's message to the most loyal followers in sports, NASCAR fans.
“We knew it would be a great way to get our message out to the millions of people that watch NASCAR,” Meier said. “We got involved with NASCAR so we can get that exposure and awareness to the different people in the stands and the ones watching on TV, and so we can get them to pay attention to this and realize the issue exists and provide them with the resources to talk to their children so they can go back to their schools and come up with programs.”
Bell made his first attempt at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series All-Star Race last weekend via the Sprint Showdown. He said he is honored to help the Megan Meier Foundation. “It’s amazing how social media can affect people in both a positive and negative way,” he said. “We need to keep people from using social media in a negative fashion, as it was in Megan’s case. When you really sit down and think about it, it’s unbelievable the effect the computer can have on a person’s life. It really brings you back down to Earth because you’ve really got to watch what you put on (the Internet).”
The Coca-Cola 600 will air live Sunday on Fox.