Erik Jones has always wanted to stay current with information, so he found himself nose deep in books. He grew up having dogs and rabbits as pets. He’s also had cancer personally affect his life, losing his father in 2016 and supporting his mother through a battle with breast cancer.
Quickly, those three pillars — children’s literacy, animal welfare and promoting early cancer detection became the three pillars to the Erik Jones Foundation when it launched in 2021.
“The cancer portion was really easy,” Jones says. “The literacy was easy as well. Reading is something that has been important to me for all of my life. It’s something that was important to my family. It gives kids a head start. If you’re fluent in reading and able to go to school and not be worried about that, it makes a big difference in their education. The animal welfare part, I’ve been an animal fan my whole life.”
On Thursday, Nov. 21, Jones was named the 2024 Comcast Community Champion of the Year through his dedication of providing charitable donations to organizations and offer direct-to-individual programs within communities across the country.
“Erik has consistently demonstrated his passion for meeting people where they are — offering support, resources, and hope,” Matt Lederer, Comcast vp of brand partnerships and amplification, says. “His dedication to early cancer detection, youth literacy and animal welfare shows how one individual can create meaningful change.”
In 2021, Jones’ foundation donated $20,000 to the Melanoma Research Foundation and distributed hundreds of thousands of sunscreen samples to raise awareness
about sun safety. It has also partnered with Sun Bus, a mobile skin-screening center to bring free screenings to race fans. The foundation also raises funds through the Window of Hope initiative where each year at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL, every NASCAR Cup Series car will include a pink window net.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jones began a #ReadWithErik initiative that began as a weekly Facebook Live series. The goal was to help promote children’s literacy by reading along with the kids. That has turned to in-person readings at racetracks on the NASCAR schedule, along with schools nationwide. His foundation has even donated book vending machines to schools and introduced a pen pal program to encourage reading and writing.
To this day, Jones is an avid reader, always trying to better…
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