Photo: Dillon Jones with Nicole Krieger, NASCAR Foundation Senior Director of Development & Marketing, at the AAA 500 race

In 2017, the D Jones Family Charitable Foundation formed a Junior Committee comprised of Dave and Donna Jones’ grandchildren: Dillon and Maddie Jones, Davis and Tyler Kindle, Jackson and Madeline Stephens, Hannah and TJ Acosta and Turner and Rhys Smith. Under the guidance of Board Member Brent Kindle, the newly formed committee researched and made grant recommendations to the Foundation Board for 2017. Following are the organizations (and what they do) put forth by the Junior Committee and awarded grants by the Foundation:

• The Alzheimer’s Association is a non-profit organization that focuses on care, support, research, awareness and advocacy for those with the active disease. It is the largest non-profit funder of Alzheimer’s disease research. AA is working with the U.S. Government to achieve the goal of preventing and effectively treating Alzheimer’s disease by 2025. (source: Wikipedia).
• According to its website, BackPack Blessings partners with Fair Oaks Elementary School in Marietta, Georgia’s Cobb County School District because 99 percent of the children in this school receive free or reduced lunch. Since the inception of the program, the school has experienced tremendous improvements in test scores, reading levels, classroom participation and attendance. BackPack Blessings believes healthy children lead to a healthy economy and environment. Its tag line is, ”Hunger does not take the weekends off.”
• The Children’s Advocacy Center of Collier County is a non-profit 501 (C)(3) dedicated to assisting child victims of physical and sexual abuse, as well as helping families who experience high conflict and/or domestic violence get the resources they need to be productive citizens in the community. Donations help the Center provide the very best services to the children that need them the most.
• Lifestraw Safe Water Fund provides gravity powered water purifiers that use an advanced ultrafiltration system which removes virtually all virus, bacteria and protozoa. This year’s donation will provide filters to vulnerable schools in the target counties of Siaya, Migori, Homa Bay and Kisumu. Several of these counties have experienced recent outbreaks of waterborne disease including cholera and typhoid. One filter lasts 3-5 years and is capable of filtering approximately 100,000 liters of water. Each filter serves 75-100 school children each.
• The Nascar Foundation’s Speediatrics Children’s Fund supports needs expressed by hospitals, specialty clinics, camps, and others providing children’s medical and health care services. According to its website, it partners with organizations with proven results in the delivery of pediatric services to fund resources critically needed to deliver high quality care to needy children. Since 2006, the organization has impacted the lives of more than 600,000 children in need.