In honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, The Dale Jr. Foundation and Nationwide Children’s Hospital have teamed up to ‘Sock It to Childhood Cancer.’ Socks designed by 8-year-old Patient Champion Carter Nance of Columbus, are now on sale to help fortify the fight against childhood cancers and support children rehabilitating from traumatic injuries, and the socks are available for purchase today. Additionally, Sept. 27 has been established as “Sock It to Childhood Cancer Day” and all who have them are encouraged to show off their socks on social media. Funds raised from sales of the socks will go directly to the Dale and Amy Earnhardt Fund at Nationwide Children’s Hospital for the purpose of childhood cancer and rehabilitation research.
Carter, who loves video games and NASCAR, spends his time at Nationwide Children’s Hospital playing with his toys and enjoys spending time with his little brother and sister. Always healthy and happy, Carter received a devastating diagnosis shortly after his fifth birthday: a tumor at the base of his brain had connected to his spinal cord. After surgery, young Carter recuperated in the Nationwide Children’s Inpatient Rehab Unit, which is the home of the Dale and Amy Activity Room.
“One of the many reasons Amy and I started the Dale and Amy Earnhardt Fund at Nationwide Children’s Hospital was to raise money and awareness to help with pediatric care, advocacy and research,” said Earnhardt Jr. “The Sock It to Childhood Cancer initiative helps us do just that. Purchasing these socks will help children like Carter and his family deal with a devastating disease like childhood cancer. Amy, Isla and I will wear ours proudly!”
The limited-number of socks, which come in a variety of sizes, were designed by Carter to help with the program. They are available at www.sockittocc.com, at the JR Nation Retail Store on the JRM Campus and at the JR Motorsports Trackside Souvenir trailer. The socks are also available at the Nationwide Children’s gift shop onsite in Columbus, Ohio.
“We are honored and proud to partner with The Dale Jr. Foundation on this important project,” said Niki Shafer, senior vice president, Outreach, Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “Our patients inspire us to join in the fight against this unforgiving disease and raise funds for pediatric cancer research, which is greatly underfunded.”
ABOUT THE DALE JR FOUNDATION:
The Dale Jr. Foundation is a charity dedicated to giving underprivileged individuals with a focus on youth, the resources to improve their confidence and education, and the opportunity to achieve extraordinary goals. The Dale Jr. Foundation has made a monumental impact in the local community since its beginning, contributing to more than 300 charities nationally and locally, including The Make-A-Wish Foundation, Blessings in a Backpack, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hope Alliance, AMI Kids and Healthreach Community Clinic. For more information, visit www.thedalejrfoundation.org.
ABOUT NATIONWIDE CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL:
Named to the Top 10 Honor Roll on U.S. News & World Report’s 2019-20 list of “Best Children’s Hospitals,” Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of America’s largest not-for-profit freestanding pediatric health care systems providing wellness, preventive, diagnostic, treatment and rehabilitative care for infants, children and adolescents, as well as adult patients with congenital disease. Nationwide Children’s has a staff of more than 13,000 providing state-of-the-art pediatric care during more than 1.5 million patient visits annually. As home to the Department of Pediatrics of The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Nationwide Children’s physicians train the next generation of pediatricians and pediatric specialists. The Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital is one of the Top 10 National Institutes of Health-funded freestanding pediatric research facilities. More information is available at NationwideChildrens.org.