Chevy Chase man races for children

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo Susan Whitney-Wilkerson⁄The Gazette A bit of magic Chevy Chase’s Peter Geiser, 10, blows on metal rings held by magician Tom Verner, who performs for orphan and refugee children around the world for his nonprofit organization, Magicians Without Borders. Verner performed on Sunday at the Leland Community Center in Chevy Chase.

His life of racing changed in 2003 when he asked the Christian Children’s Fund to place their Web address on the side of his racecar for a race in California. Having sponsored two children through the CCF, Olson felt that generating publicity for the organization was important.

‘‘I have sponsored two children for something like five years, a girl Araya from Thailand and a boy Shivnarine from the Dominican Republic,” Olson wrote in an e-mail in Taiwan, where he now lives. ‘‘I get letters and cards from them all the time and get to correspond with them, I even get report cards, and can really see my sponsorship of them being used well to buy school supplies, blankets, sweaters, etc.”

Soon, though, this form of advertising for the CCF became a regular thing for Olson. In January 2004, he packed up and moved to Taiwan where he has been racing throughout China ever since.

‘‘Racing is booming in Mainland China right now,” he wrote, ‘‘with their big car-crazy culture and that is the main reason I came out here.”

Olson also finds time to be a karting instructor in Taiwan where he has been racing in their national karting championship.

For more information on Olson and his races, visit his Web site at www.peteolson.com. For more information on the Christian Children’s Fund, visit www.christianchildrensfund.org.

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