What started as an annual Christmas charity event in 1989 has turned into a yearly charity drive to raise money and toys for underprivileged children across North Carolina.

Archive photo from 2023. Photo courtesy of Stock-For-Tots.

The 36th annual Stocks-For-Tots Chartiy drive wrapped up at the Charles Mack Citizen Center in downtown Mooresville, N.C. Tuesday night (Dec. 2) with nearly 90 NASCAR-industry personnel on-site to welcome and sign autographs for hundreds of ticket holders and VIP’s for the event.

Included on the list were current and former racers like Donnie Allison, Kerry Earnhardt, Grant Enfinger, 2000 NASCAR Cup Series champion Bobby Labonte, Dave Marcis, Ryan Newman, recent NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Ricky Rudd — and of course, Santa Claus.

Erik Enyart, who has been a volunteer with Stocks-For-Tots on-and-off since 2020, said the final donations that came in the form of toys were a “box truck full of toys” and monetary donations.

Stocks-For-Tots works with Pharos Parenting, a non-profit in Iredell County, N.C. that offers parent education and family-support services, to distribute the toys.

“Toys were collected and we have already been distributed to some local hospitals,” Enyart said to The Racing Experts.

For the event itself, planning begins the year before; securing the venue for the first Tuesday of December.

Enyart said he starts making calls in early September to book NASCAR-industry personnel for the event.

This year, Enyart placed about 180 calls out to book personnel to sign autographs.

Schedule conflicts arise , but drivers have been able to send in autographed memoribilia for the event.

Enyart pointed to time a few years back when NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Justin Allgaier could not make the night but still wanted to help.

Photo by Dominic Aragon/TRE

“We asked if he could donate 50 signed hero cards a couple years ago and he came in and do that and we gave each one to each one of our VIP,” Enyart said.

If someone is wanting to make a toy donation, Enyart said people can drop off their toy donation at the The North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame or mail it in.

The 2026 Stocks-For-Tots event is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 1 again at the Charles Mack Citizen Center, Enyark confirmed.

Dominic Aragon is currently the editor-in-chief for The Racing Experts.

From Grants, New Mexico, USA, Aragon started watching NASCAR in 2004 and has been covering the sport since 2009. Aragon is a 2012 graduate of Grants High School and a May 2016 graduate of the University of New Mexico with a B.A. in Mass Communications & Journalism. Aragon has worked in local and national media, as a musician, and an educator. He is co-author of the 2024 book “All of It: Daytona 500 Champion Tells the Rest of the Story” with racer Geoff Bodine.

Aragon, his wife Feliz, and son Christopher currently reside in Grants, New Mexico, USA.

You can reach Dominic at daragon@theracingexperts.net.