In April 2018, Aaron Judge joined Sharpie Pens and the Players Tribune in supporting #ICANHELP, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting students on how to respond to negative online content and build positive social media campaigns.

#ICANHELP has trained more than 450,000 students in 15 states and two countries. This was a natural fit for Aaron who believes strongly in supporting youth and youth leadership development. “The #ICANHELP foundation is really about deleting negativity on soical media. Not just deleting negativity, but empowering young people and educators with a system and a plan to stop negativity when they see it and produce a positive outcome,” says ALL RISE foundation founder Aaron Judge.

No stranger to negativity, Aaron’s start in Major League Baseball was frequented with questions about his heigh, size, swing performance from the first day he was drafted. Aaron turned those negative comments into positive action finding motivation in those who seemed more interested in tearing down than building up.

“Create your own lines, in this world you are told so many times this is how it’s done, or this is how it should be. Break those lines, break those chains, break out of those line you are given and find the positivity.”

This is also a personal cause for Aaron. “My cousins are 8 and 11, they are about to get into this social media world, I want to make a positive impact for them.” Aaron adds, “I don’t want to be defined as only a baseball player. There’s a lot of things off the baseball field that also define who I am. I want to show people that I did help.”

Aaron also penned a personal essay for the campaign, adding “I want to leave an impact on this world that’s greater than just what I do on the baseball field. I’m blessed to have the best parents in the world, and I think the best way that I can repay them is by taking the lessons they taught me — the things that made me the man I am today — and pass them on.”

You can learn more about #ICANHELP at www.icanhelpdeletenegativity.org.