K1 Speed Dallas Hosts Hometown Hero
K1 Speed Dallas recently had the privilege of hosting a hometown hero who has been making a difference in his community for nearly 50 years – Dale Long.
In 1963, when Long was just 11 years old, a bomb planted by the Ku Klux Klan exploded at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. Long was just three classrooms away inside the church, and knew the four girls killed in the attack, which became a major turning point for the Civil Rights Movement. In fact, Long stood just 10 feet away from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and looked him in the eye when he attended the funerals of three of the four girls.
Long’s grandmother told him that he could use the tragedy to help someone else, so when his fraternity brother in college told him about Big Brothers Big Sisters, he knew that it was his calling.
Long has now been a Big Brother for nearly 45 years and has mentored seven Little Brothers. In 1989, he was named National Big of the Year and was invited to the White House to meet with then-president George H.W. Bush.
Long’s current Little Brother is Mawntell Miller, and the two of them enjoy many fun activities, like K1 Speed, as he helps Mawntell prepare for life and college.
Long and Miller’s recent trip to K1 Speed Dallas was captured by Fox 4 News. You can watch the heartwarming moment by clicking the button below!