"Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  . . . "
 
Little Neco Pedregon said the timeless bedtime prayer like he does every night. But recently the tenderhearted three-year-old asked a special favor of his powerful Friend.
 
When he reached the end of his prayer, Neco said, "And God, please help Mommy sell calendars so she can help all the kids at the hospital."
 
This little boy, the youngest child of two-time NHRA Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon and wife Andrea, had just made an emergency trip to the hospital during the Auto Club NHRA Finals at Pomona, Calif. Born with an underdeveloped airway (a condition called tracheomalacia) that leaves him susceptible to bronchitis, pneumonia, and other respiratory ailments, Neco Pedregon is familiar with hospitals.
 
And in his five years, he has seen enough to understand his own medical troubles pale in comparison.

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Racing Community Can Help Fulfill 5-Year-Old's Prayer
 
"Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  . . . "
 
Little Neco Pedregon said the timeless bedtime prayer like he does every night. But recently the tenderhearted three-year-old asked a special favor of his powerful Friend.
 
When he reached the end of his prayer, Neco said, "And God, please help Mommy sell calendars so she can help all the kids at the hospital."
 
This little boy, the youngest child of two-time NHRA Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon and wife Andrea, had just made an emergency trip to the hospital during the Auto Club NHRA Finals at Pomona, Calif. Born with an underdeveloped airway (a condition called tracheomalacia) that leaves him susceptible to bronchitis, pneumonia, and other respiratory ailments, Neco Pedregon is familiar with hospitals.
 
And in his five years, he has seen enough to understand his own medical troubles pale in comparison.
 
So he's hoping -- praying -- for success of the "NHRA Full Throttle Real Families" calendar, which will benefit children's cancer research through Indiana University's Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center. It's mother Andrea's venture to raise funds and awareness, like her 2010 "NHRA Full Throttle Real Housewives" calendar did for melanoma research at the Simon Cancer Center by selling 1,500 copies and raising $40,000.
 
Online orders for the $20 limited-edition calendar at www.tonypedregon.com are scheduled to be fulfilled before Christmas Day. Because so many racing families wanted to participate in the project, the calendar is a 19-month edition rather than the traditional 12 months. It features both candid and posed images of the racers and their families.
 
Among the drag racers and their families participating in the "Real Families" calendar are Kenny and Sheryl Johnson Bernstein, Brandon and Tracy Bernstein, Larry and Ali Dixon, Robert and Adria Hight, Forrest and Charlotte Lucas, Morgan Lucas and girlfriend Katie, Bob Vandergriff and fiancee Marisa, Del and Connie Worsham, Ron and Shelly Capps, John and Laurie Force, Danny Hood and Ashley Force Hood, Cruz Pedregon and girlfriend Stacy Eads, Bob and Therase Tasca, Jeg and Samantha Coughlin, Erica Enders, Richie Stevens, Shane and Amber Gray, Jason and Cindy Line, Allen and Pam Johnson, Vincent Nobile, the Hector and Grace Arana family, Eddie and Annemarie Krawiec, and Matt and Angie Smith.
 
Amber Kleopfer Senseny, senior associate director of development for the Simon Cancer Center, said the facility appreciates Pedregon's and the drag-racing community's efforts.
 
"During this difficult economic time when research dollars are incredibly scarce, philanthropic gifts are critical to ensure promising research is not delayed due to lack of funding," she said. "We at IU are so pleased to be the recipient of the Andrea Pedregon Charity Foundation's generosity for the second year in a row. We appreciate Andrea’s efforts to work with other NHRA drivers' families to create a calendar that delights their fans and generates funding for our cancer research."
 
So how will these funds be used? Dr. Peter Johnstone, William A. Mitchell professor and chair of radiation oncology at the Indiana University School of Medicine, said he has it earmarked for  a specific purpose.
 
"The funding generated by the sale of this calendar will allow us to perform clinical research to minimize radiation's effect on normal tissue near tumors in children," he said. "Our goal is to not only help young people overcome their cancers but also to provide treatment options that are free of damaging long-term side effects that could lessen their quality of life as adults.
 
"My colleagues and I are enormously grateful to be the designated recipients of this calendar's proceeds,” Dr. Johnstone said. "Therapy is a critical component of treatment for many childhood cancers, and we are blessed to care for children from all over the country and the world whose parents seek out the expertise of Riley Children's Hospital and IU Health Proton Therapy Center.
 
On a more personal scale, last year's calendar saved at least one life, that of MiMi Medlen.
 
The nurse and mother of popular Funny Car driver Eric Medlen said Andrea Pedregon's push for melanoma screening with last year's calendar project prodded her to investigate a suspicious spot on her skin she had ignored.
 
"I had seen a spot for about a year and didn't do anything about it," Medlen said. "We nurses are the worst patients in the world. You just kind of pass it off, because, you know -- it’s one of those things that doesn't happen to you. It happens to your patients.   
 
"I was looking at the calendar, thinking, 'This is such a neat thing. Maybe I ought to have that [spot] checked out. So they biopsied it, and it was melanoma," she said. "So the calendar definitely saved my life."
 
Melanoma claimed the life of Andrea Pedregon's dear friend, Angi Austin, of Port Huron, Mich., who was just 42 years old.
 
"She had a spot on her arm, and she got it dug out, no big deal. But then she started having headaches," she recalled. By then the melanoma had spread beyond the benefit of treatment.
 
"It caught all of us so off-guard," Pedregon said. She admitted, "I was ignorant" about the effects even of indirect sunlight, tanning beds, and use of baby oil in sunbathing.
 
That inspired Pedregon to undertake the 2010 calendar. Even though the beneficiary of this year's drive is for pediatric cancer research, she still urged everyone to be aware of possible melanoma early-warning signs.
 
"If you see a spot that looks funny, get your butt in to the doctor's and have it checked out. It's 100-percent curable, if you catch it in time," she said. "If you ignore it, those cells in the meantime continue to multiply."
 
Just as shockingly sad is the statistic that also caught her attention: that 46 children each day are diagnosed with cancer. She has seen children at Indianapolis' Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis whose stories have broken her heart.
 
"One poor little guy, about 12 years old, comes by taxi by himself to get his chemotherapy treatments," she said. His parents work or are unable to bring him because of obligations to other children at home. In taking Neco there occasionally for treatment and his older brother, Dezi, who has asthma, Pedregon has seen children dealing with damage from the very treatment that's supposed to cure them. She has seen children scared but brave in trying to remain completely still while treatment targets tumors in highly specific areas.   
 
"Seeing all the little kids there, it's so, so sad," she said. "It really tugs at you, knowing that we can walk out with our kids and they don’t have to undergo brutal chemo treatments."
 
Just as with the message she took from her friend Angi's experience, Pedregon said she couldn't just sit by idly. Rather than be overcome with haunting images and heartrending facts, she acted.
 
"I felt responsible," she said.
 
Medlen called Pedregon "a very special girl" who is "just genuinely kind and serving somebody else. It's just in her nature."
 
In previous racing seasons, the Andrea Pedregon Charity Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, has used trackside auctions to benefit Locks of Love (for wigs for disadvantaged children with long-term hair loss) and Smile Train (providing enough funding for 86 surgeries for children with a cleft lip and/or cleft palate).
 
"With the overwhelming support from our first calendar, I felt we could once again reach out to the NHRA Full Throttle fans, teams, and sponsors for support for yet another good cause," Andrea Pedregon said. "They have proved time and time again I can count on them."
 
She certainly won’t turn down any divine intervention, thanks to son Neco, either.
 
As Christmastime rolled in, Neco Pedregon didn't wish for Nintendo Wii games, Blue Ray movies, electronic gadgets or toys. He wanted the sick boys and girls at the hospital to get healthy. It's a big wish -- and a big-hearted one, to be sure.
 
But sending $20 to www.tonypedregon.com for each copy calendar would help Andrea Pedregon "sell calendars so she can help all the kids at the hospital." And for Neco Pedregon, it would be cooler than anything he ever could receive in his Christmas stocking.