Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus and Rockland County Executive Ed Day took to the racetrack at Palisades Autobahn Indoor Speedway Thursday night for a fundraiser event.

Proceeds from the Race For A Cause will help kids who are dealing with serious illnesses.

Neuhaus and Day raced for people like 8-year-old Mae Cunningham and her mother, Keri Cunningham.

Mae had a stroke this past fall while playing soccer. Now she is undergoing rehabilitation at Blythedale Children's Hospital in Westchester County.

Mae's family has been driving a lot to visit her in Westchester. The few thousand dollars they received will cover a lot of new expenses they have incurred.

"We live in Pearl River, so we're traveling everyday to the hospital. My husband I, back and forth. So travel is definitely a cost. We're making some improvements to our home so it's safer for her when she does return home," Keri Cunningham explained.

The nonprofit Penguin Plunge New York organized the event. They hope to raise at least $12,000 through racing fees and raffles.

"Here you have an awful situation where your child is sick but it can also cost you your house and your livelihood. So we want to be there to give them moral support seeing the community gathered to help them," said event organizer Barbara Noyes.

The four families who the event was organized for said they were astonished for the community support.

"The community that we live in, the Pearl River community, is extraordinary. It's hard because we want to thank everybody individually. We just don't know how we'll be able to do it," Cunningham said.

Neuhaus barely beat Day in the race but neither of them got on the podium though.

Both, however, did not care, because they raised a lot of money for the kids.