Standing only 5’2, and listed at only 100lbs, Danica Patrick isn’t the most physically intimidating presence you’ll encounter but her heart is as big as they come. Danica is involved with many charitable works and does a lot involving children. She has been able to make genuine, heartfelt connections with many of those children that she’s able to meet.
Unlike many of her NASCAR and professional athlete counterparts, Danica Patrick doesn’t really have one particular foundation of her own that she funnels all her work through. Instead, Patrick’s philanthropic work takes the form of the numerous initiatives and fundraisers that she’s has been, and continues to be a part of.
Perhaps the most famous of all her efforts is her work with the Make A Wish Foundation, the organization that grants the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses. Over the last few years, Patrick has met with two different young women that happened to be her fans: an eight year-old girl named Stephanie, afflicted with Ewing’s Sarcoma, and a young girl named Katie, who waged a battle against her Leukemia in order to get her white cells up high enough to get her doctor’s permission to visit Patrick on the track.
But that’s not all the work she’s done with young women. Through sponsorships by GoDaddy, Patrick has worked to help get more girls enrolled in STEM programs: focused on advancing their knowledge and skills in science, technology, engineering, and math. Her biggest selling points with these children is her quirky and self-deprecating sense of humor, combined with her innate ability to be totally real and genuine when interacting with them on an individual level.
While Patrick doesn’t have any children of her own, choosing to focus on that after her career is over, she’s already shown an ability to impact the lives of many other children.