Thanksgiving week is about giving back, being with family, and if you live here in North Texas, Dallas Cowboys football on Thursday.
For the most talked about sports franchise in the world, the spotlight will again be on giving back. We caught up with the woman in charge of the Dallas Cowboys brand, who cooked up the Salvation Army halftime show spotlighted many years ago and is being recognized for something else.
“For me, it's always been about, we've got an incredible game that people are incredibly interested in. If we can take that magic and the energy that the game creates and that visibility and shine it over to the people that are truly doing the most good in our community, we should,” Charlotte Jones, executive vice president, and chief brand officer, said from her office at the Star in Frisco.
Jones says the team plays football but is also about hope and inspiration.
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
“To make our communities better, to make our country better, then that's really our purpose,” Jones said.
For Jones, that means giving back, something her parents instilled in her as a child.
“I think my father did, and certainly my mother did. You know, I think that we always grew up under the mantra, ‘to whom much is given, much is required’ and I think that we all take that to heart. I know I certainly do. I think that if there's ever an opportunity to use all of this greatness to do something powerful with it, then we need to take it up.”
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
At this moment, Jones is intensely focused on saluting the 40 million men and women who serve and have served our country.
“I mean, we get to play football because they risked their lives, and they put it all on the line. They sacrificed family and many, the ultimate sacrifice to protect who we are as a country. There's probably not a better point in time of our country than today for people to actually understand who we are as a country, what that actually means, and to hopefully inspire our next generation to protect it and understand that it could disappear just like that,” she said.
For Jones, it doesn’t stop at the pageantry and celebration of the recent Veterans Day game. She is working to build a permanent home that will honor the 3,517 National Medal of Honor recipients, a museum in Arlington that honors heroes. Jones says until now, there has never been a museum or monument to recognize their sacrifice.
“I couldn't believe it. I was like, wow, how has this not happened before? I mean, this is 160 years old. Abraham Lincoln created this recognition. For it to have gone for so long, to not be able to do something as significant as this. To do something on a national scale, to have a monument in D.C., to have a museum that is here in Texas, in Arlington, and then to have an institute that will take the values that they espouse all across the country into our classrooms and into the boardroom. We need that.”
Jones has raised $240 million to date and is on the home stretch.
“We are so close. $35 million. We're so proud of how far we've come. This effort and others put her on a shortlist for the Salute to Service award, presented by the USAA. The winner will be announced during the Super Bowl. Well, it's not about winning. It's about, you know, making people aware of this incredible mission to inspire America.”
You can vote daily for Jones and the Dallas Cowboys for the Salute to Service award here until November 30.
