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Jeff Gordon is from Salt Lake City and attended Utah State University on a tennis scholarship. His degree is in marketing with a minor in accounting. Gordon served two years on a Mormon mission in Austria. He was the general manager of a professional basketball franchise in the Continental Basketball Association.
"It's seemed like my whole life I've been working with children's charities wherever I was," Gordon says. While working in professional basketball he served with Big Brothers/Big Sisters and was an honorary coach for Special Olympics in Wyoming.
Today, Gordon is the CEO of Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation. He joined the NCCF in 1997 as executive director.
Gordon stressed the importance of Las Vegas business leaders supporting the popular charity. Land developer Brett Torino through his Torino Foundation runs Torino Ranch in Lovell Canyon that hosts Camp Cartwheel and provides children who are fighting cancer, along with their siblings, with a variety of programs. This year marks the 20th year Camp Cartwheel will be held at Torino Ranch.
Dr. Ronald Oseas, the first pediatric oncologist to come to Las Vegas in 1993; founded the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation in the early 1990s. Prior to his arrival in Las Vegas, families had to travel to Arizona, California or Utah. NCCF provides free financial educational, emotional and social services to patients and their families.
JEFF GORDON
Q; How did you come to work at a nonprofit with a background in sales and marketing?
A: Before I accepted that position I said: "I got to meet some of the families, I got to meet some of these children and see what the needs are," and I meet a couple and they grabbed my heart (in) those first meetings. And I realized how many voids we had in this community that these families and these children needed. One by one we just started filling those voids. And that was the birth of the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation.
Q: What type of assistance is there for families?
A: Every year, we had a program or a service; now, we offer 45 programs and services at no charge to the families. We do a lot of financial help with these families. We have social workers that do counseling. But...