Ice-truck duty at NASCAR races is one of those seemingly thankless jobs that's loaded with redeeming features.

"Everybody wants to work ice because it's cool - and because it's cool," said Cindy Gettsy, chairwoman of Church of the Redeemer's race committee.

"Cool" as in a neat kind of volunteer work to do. "Cool" as in a respite from the heat other volunteers battle inside the church's concession stand in the garage area at Richmond International Raceway.

And "cool" as in the cash it brings in for the church's Haiti Ministry.

Parishioners at Redeemer, a Roman Catholic church in Mechanicsville, consider themselves "the official church of NASCAR," Gettsy said.

They staff the ice truck and the garage concession stand for three racing weekends a year at RIR - two NASCAR and one Indy Racing League event.

The ice is used by pit crews to cool the car engines and other items. Gettsy said 2,160 10-pound bags of ice will fit in a tractor-trailer.

"We started with that much on Wednesday, and I'm sure we'll have to get more," she said yesterday.

The ice and concession sales raise about $6,000 annually for the church's ac- ICEtivities in Haiti, which also get money from the group's massive once-a-year yard sale.

About four dozen volunteers are needed for each race weekend.

"[Today] We'll meet at the church at 11 o'clock . . . and we'll get back to the church at 2 in the morning," said Carolyn Brand, co-chairwoman of the Haiti Ministry. "That's a huge commitment these people give us to help our sisters in Haiti."

But there is the chance to chat it up with race crews and occasionally meet a driver or two.

"It's a lot of fun," Gettsy said, "but it's a lot of work."

Brand said church members adopted Haiti as a project about 11 years ago. They made their first mission trip there at Christmastime 1997 and have been returning annually since.

Education is a primary focus. The island's schools are nothing like you would imagine, Brand said. The first ministry-supported school collapsed, and a Haitian woman moved 250 students to her unfinished house - a cinder-block outline of a structure - to continue their studies.

Enrollment is now up to about 500.

"We pay for 10 teachers' salaries - the equivalent of about $400 a year [per teacher], and we collect money to help pay for the uniforms and supplies and books," Brand said.

The ministry also provides vitamins and over-the-counter medications to needy Haitians and creates bonds of friendship, love and understanding.

"We have formed a family," Gettsy said. "We cry when we leave."

Brand said she calls the Haiti missions her "yearly faith-renewal trips."