Morgan and Cindy Shepherd present Henry Ayers, executive director of the PARC workshop in Stuart, Va., with a check for $12,000. Credit: Rick Houston

Shepherd brings holiday cheer to the Virginia hills

Driver makes yearly charitable Christmas trip to PARC workshop

Monday, Dec. 11
7:45 a.m. ET
Hamptonville, N.C.

This has to be some kind of mistake. Morgan Shepherd is early.

	Morgan Shepherd has four career Cup wins and four times has finished in the top 10 in points. Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images
	STATS •   Morgan Shepherd

His annual Christmas trip through the mountains of Virginia has always run behind schedule, for no other reason than the hectic task it is to get this many people and vehicles from one place to another. But on this day, he has told a visitor that they'd meet at 7:40 a.m. in the parking lot of a local convenience store.

And he's there at 7:39. It's a red-letter day.

It was 20 years ago this year that Ken Lanter met Billy Shough, a man with severe handicaps who wanted nothing more out of life than to have the roof on his mobile home fixed. Lanter called Shepherd, who within a matter of hours lined up the materials for the job. The next day, Shepherd and Lanter were on their way to Shough's home in Stuart, Va.

And they've been at it ever since. The trip has grown in size throughout the years, and made as many as six stops on a single trip. It has always been a day-long journey, and then some. This morning, the 75 people or so who are making this year's trip boarded a bus and a van or two, as well as Shepherd's transporter and motorhome at 6:15.

The schedule says the caravan will pull back into Shepherd's new race shop in Conover, N.C., at 11:30 p.m. We'll just have to wait and see how that goes.

9:15 a.m. ET
Stuart, Va.

As Shepherd's coach pulls into the parking lot, there's Jamie Marshall just as she is every year for this trip. She stands just outside the front door, waiting on Morgan to show up.

The greatest gift for Morgan Shepherd is the smile on Jamie Marshall's face. Credit: Rick Houston

Jamie is 42 years old, and a client here at the Patrick (County) Association for Retarded Citizens workshop. She wouldn't miss this for anything. After changing into his driver's uniform, Shepherd greets every single one of the workshop's clients, but he pays special attention to this woman to whom the treatment means so much.

She shows Shepherd a picture of her niece, and he rewards the gesture with the biggest of bear hugs. They eat breakfast together. After that, they dance the jitterbug and later still, another slow dance. She gives him a present just as she has every year, and this year, it's a Bible.

And Jamie ... Jamie's smiling every single second.

"Jamie and all those clients are very special people, but Jamie's very special to us," Shepherd says after boarding his coach 3 1/2 hours after his arrival at the PARC center. Make this trip just one time, and there's no doubt that isn't just another in-and-out, grip-and-grin photo opportunity.

"She's always the one that comes running to me, and she's got to tell me about the gift that she's bought us. She flexes her muscles, showing me her muscles. There's so many special things about Jamie ... her smile.

"The gift part is just fantastic, because when she gives me that gift, she's sitting there clapping her hands, waiting for me to open that gift. To know that she thinks about me, and to know that she waits for that part of the year, that's something that you treasure. She's one of the reasons that makes this trip so great.

"That's part of serving the Lord, and part of the Lord's gift to me, knowing that she's gonna have that big smile on her face. I've never, ever seen her without that smile."

Shepherd has given more than $100,000 to the PARC workshop throughout the years, in addition to paying for and installing a mobile home that the facility uses to teach its clients independent living skills. Those who come to the center are also well known in and around the area for their custom furniture refinishing skills.

The clients of the PARC workshop have a broad range of disabilities, from high-functioning individuals who can't read or write to those with multiple severe handicaps. There have been times when it would've been "nip and tuck" whether the center could've remained open had it not been for Shepherd's contributions.

"Morgan's support has meant a tremendous amount to this facility over the years, because we have used the contributions that he has made for capital improvements and to increase the capacity of the facility," said Henry Ayers, the executive director of the PARC workshop. "Without that, we wouldn't be able to run nearly the program that we run today."

As the Hall Family gospel group sets up for its performance, The Mayberry Deputy is whipping out tickets (otherwise known as signed photos) as fast as he possibly can. All the while, he keeps his audience smiling and laughing.

	Morgan Shepherd is making a difference behind the wheel. Credit: Rick Houston
	YOU CAN HELP Contributions to help support the annual Christmas trip can be sent to the Morgan Shepherd Charitable Fund, P.O. Box 623, Conover, N.C. 28613.

David Browning has gained a certain measure of fame in the Southeast through his act as The Mayberry Deputy, a take-off on the character of Barney Fife from The Andy Griffith Show. He has been on several of Shepherd's trips through the Virginia mountains, and sees a definite value in bringing cheer into the lives of the PARC workshop clients.

"You know, we go through our lives and we think we have struggles and we think we have difficulties," Browning said. "If we just share of ourselves and make these kinds of visits, we see what true happiness is about. When people can enjoy themselves to this level, just by a goofy guy like me coming in and giving them a smile, their enjoyments is magnified tenfold in my heart.

"What Morgan does for these people -- what the PARC workshop does for these people -- is a remarkable thing. It gives purpose and reason to life, and no matter where we are on that ladder, we all want purpose. We all want something that lifts us up."

This year, Shepherd presented Ayers with a check for $12,000. It's not the largest donation he's made to the workshop, and it pains him. Shepherd has struggled mightily on the racetrack in recent years, but no matter what's happened in his professional life, he has remained determined to keep the trip alive.

He's never missed one.

"He seems to not care [about his racing hardships], as long as he can support this effort up here, whether he goes hungry or not," Lanter said. "He'll be taken care of, there's no doubt about that. God will take care of him. ... He believes in this thing, and it's happening."

Morgan Shepherd drives the Victory In Jesus Dodge for Faith Motorsports. Credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images

12:53 p.m. ET
Leaving Stuart, Va.

Shepherd is driving his motorcoach moments after leaving the PARC workshop, and decides he needs something from the back. As the coach continues to hurtle down some Virginia backroad, Cindy, Shepherd's wife, takes the wheel.

OK ... so maybe 40 mph or so isn't exactly lightspeed, but it's still pretty dang fast to be changing drivers in midstream.

Moments later, he's back, and they switch again. It's a move that looks rehearsed, like they've swapped the steering wheel 1,000 times while traveling the twisting and winding roads of America.

Never mind being late. Let's just get there in one piece, OK?

3:30 p.m. ET
Galax, Va.

After a stop for lunch, Shepherd pulls up to the Rex Theater in downtown Galax, safe and sound. Four or five show cars have supposedly been promised, and only one -- Tony Stewart's Joe Gibbs Racing Chevrolet -- is here.

Only one other driver, Dennis Setzer, has made the trip this year. PRN's Mark Garrow served as master of ceremonies at the PARC workshop, and he'll do so again at this stop. As far as racing celebrities go, they're it.

Morgan Shepherd and Dennis Setzer take time to sign autographs. Credit: Rick Houston

There aren't any TV cameras around, so Shepherd and Setzer certainly aren't doing this for the publicity. Setzer has been making the trip for more than a decade, missing only a handful due to racing commitments that he absolutely couldn't avoid.

"If you ever come on one, you'll wish you could make every one of them," Setzer said. "It's a special trip. You see so many people who enjoy having us here, and you leave and realize how much you enjoy being here. That's the way I've felt every year I've been. I've felt like my Christmas has been better every time I've came. I've felt more in the spirit of Christmas."

As the 4 p.m. start time approaches, there aren't a lot of people in the theater. Yet as three different gospel groups begin singing, the auditorium slowly fills. By the time Shepherd takes the stage to give his testimony, the place is almost packed with probably 250 people or so. After songs, testimonies and an altar call to which some 30 people respond, the line for autographs stretches all the way from the front of the auditorium all the way out to the street.

When Shepherd finally pulls away from the theater, it's 7:58 p.m., almost exactly 4 1/2 hours after he arrived. He says simply, "This has been a good day."

And indeed it has. Other than one last stop for dinner, another trip is finished.