Melbourne’s Brandon Jimenez Wins Sixth Annual Event
The final results of Monday night’s Betty Jane France Memorial High Speed Hold ’Em Poker Tournament list the champion as Brandon Jimenez of Melbourne. But the real winners were the thousands of children who will benefit from the approximate $300,000 raised to support The NASCAR Foundation’s Speediatrics Children’s Fund.
Several hundred benefactors disguised as poker players gathered for the event at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University’s Henderson Center. The sixth annual event was founded by the late Betty Jane France – also the founder of The NASCAR Foundation – who passed away last August.
Jimenez is with Melbourne-based Cardroom Tech, one of the sponsors for this year’s event. Two Daytona Beach residents, Mary Bennett and Carl Lentz, finished second and third, respectively.
The Speediatrics Children’s Fund was started in September 2016. The fund supports needs expressed by hospitals, specialty clinics, camps and others providing children’s medical and health care services. Since 2006, Speediatrics – racing-themed children’s care units at Halifax Health Center in Daytona Beach and Homestead Hospital in Homestead, Florida – has impacted more than 500,000 children in need. The Speediatrics Children’s Fund partners with organizations in the delivery of pediatric services and high-quality care to children in need.
“Betty Jane would’ve been especially proud of the community support we received this year for High Speed Hold ’Em,” said The NASCAR Foundation Executive Director Lorene King. “This event was always her favorite fund-raising event of the year and obviously it is becoming a favorite of many others, as well.”
