United Way of Central Georgia is excited to announce Brian Jordan, former professional baseball player with the Atlanta Braves (and others) and football player with the Atlanta Falcons, will join the UWCG team for the day on Monday, December 2nd. Jordan will be reading his own book, “I told you I can play” to children at Hartley Elementary School at 2:00 this afternoon. The United Way of Central Georgia will also be giving copies of the book to 150 children. At 3:00 pm, Jordan will then join the United Way team live on ESPN Middle Georgia 93.1 FM/99.5 FM for a radiothon broadcasting from Jeff Smith Ford at 113 W.E. Green Jr. Pkwy in Byron. The radiothon will be promoting the 12th Annual Jeff Smith Auto Raffle underway until January 10th. The winner will be drawn on January 10th and will get to choose among 6 vehicles donated by Jeff Smith Automotive. The raffle has an HUGE bonus right now running through Wednesday, December 4th—a pair of tickets to see the SEC Championship between UGA and LSU on December 7th in Atlanta.
All proceeds from the Jeff Smith Auto Raffle will benefit United Way of Central Georgia and help end generational poverty in Central Georgia. It’s a huge tie-in for former professional athlete, Brian Jordan, who began the Brian Jordan Foundation in Douglas County in 1998 as a scholarship program to help kids in need achieve their higher education goals. “When I first created the foundation, it was about education, it was about providing scholarships to kids in need especially those kids who don’t have the money to send their kids to school.” The foundation has provided close to $500K in scholarships throughout the years,” said Jordan.
Brian Jordan then elevated his task to improve education by starting even younger. He began writing and publishing children’s books to try to close the 3rd grade literacy gap. “I wanted to do more and that’s when I started writing children’s books. I thought this is the perfect segway into literacy programs. In order to give a kid hope, he or she has to be able to read and educate themselves to read,” said Jordan.