Sunland Park donating $100,000 to El Paso shooting victims

Sunland Park in New Mexico plans to donate a total of $100,000 to two foundations assisting families following the mass shooting in neighboring El Paso, Texas, the track announced late Friday.

Sunland also is planning a benefit for the families on a future day. The track operates a casino and opens for live racing in December.

Many on the New Mexico circuit and in the racing community at large have longstanding ties to El Paso because of its close proximity to Sunland, which opened in 1959.

“As a part of the greater El Paso area, we feel very connected to this close-knit community,” Ethan Linder, director of marketing for Sunland, said in a press release. “Many of our employees and most of our visitors live in El Paso, so we’ve all really been impacted by this terrible tragedy. That’s why we didn’t think twice about making this donation that will go to help our friends and neighbors.”

Sunland is donating to the El Paso Community Foundation’s El Paso Shooting Victims’ Fund and the Paso del Norte Community Foundation’s El Paso Victims Relief Fund, according to the press release. It’s meant to assist families impacted by the shooting at a Walmart in El Paso that left 22 dead and others hospitalized on Aug. 3.