LOUDON, N.H. — From St. Paul to Baton Rouge, Baltimore to Chicago, Ferguson to Sanford, protesters have flooded the streets, with tension between community members and police officers boiling over as unrest over police shootings heightened.

But it didn’t hit home for Joey Logano until this week.

The shooting of Keith Scott by Charlotte police led to protests in the city’s downtown area that became so violent the city’s mayor declared a state of emergency.

Logano was born in Middletown, Conn., but like many NASCAR drivers, he lives in Charlotte, and seeing chaos overwhelm some of the city’s landmarks was jarring.

“A lot of times when you see things like this happen, it’s in a different city and you don’t recognize where it’s at,’’ he said, “but when you see the NASCAR building getting vandalized and you see areas of the city that you know very well with just crazy things happening, it makes you sick to your gut.

“You don’t know what to do and you kind of feel helpless.’’

Logano’s answer was a gesture of goodwill to show support for police officers. He donated $10,000 to the Manchester (N.H.) Police Athletic League Friday as a part of the Chasing Second Chances program he started a year ago. The program’s mission, Log­ano said, is to raise awareness about social issues, and donating to MPAL made sense in the current climate.

Officer John Levasseur, who grew up on the west side of Manchester and boxed through the MPAL, said 70-80 children come to the MPAL ­after school. The donation will help the nonprofit equip its commercial kitchen, buy equipment for the fitness program, and launch an after-school STEM program.

“I was a PAL kid,’’ said Levasseur. “That’s when I started having some real positive inter­actions with police. After going down there for some time, I started volunteering so I could pay it forward, and through paying it forward, I became a police officer.

“So I’m just one of so many kids through our program that have come through and done great things with their lives. And this is a way, especially these days, it breaks these barriers down. So this donation goes a long way.’’

In the past month, athletes across several sports have made demonstrations of protest during the national anthem. The most prominent has been San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who has refused to stand for the anthem since the preseason.

In the first week of the NFL season, Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall, who was Kaepernick’s teammate at the University of Nevada, knelt for the anthem on a nat­ionally televised Thursday night game (he was subsequently dropped as a paid sponsor by Century Link and Air Academy Federal Credit Union).

The Seattle Seahawks stood as a team with their arms inter­locked during the anthem. Before their WNBA playoff opener Wednesday, the Indiana Fever knelt as a team during the anthem.

Logano, who will race in Sunday’s Bad Boy Off Road 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, suggested there were better ways to spark change.

“That’s something I preach all the time is I want to positively impact someone’s life,’’ Logano said. “And I think ways like we’re doing it today with MPAL, is there a better way of doing it?

“If you can find some great organizations like we have today and impact people in that way and use this platform that we have as a public figure to positively impact people, that’s the way to do it. I don’t honestly believe in a lot of other ways that other athletes are doing it right now.’’

Kaepernick has pledged to donate the first $1 million he earns this season to community organizations (49ers owner Jed York followed suit, pledging an additional $1 million from the 49ers foundation).

Kaepernick later pledged to donate all of the proceeds from his jersey sales, which jumped to No. 1 after he began his demonstrations. Kaepernick followed up on his promise this week, laying out a plan to donate $100,000 for 10 weeks, and he will set up a website for the public to keep track of all donations.

“All we can really do is just say some prayers and hope that eventually everything calms down and everyone is able to come to some kind of peace at the end of this thing and we can move forward and make our world better,’’ Logano said. “Right now, it’s a scary situation.

“To me, I don’t really know how to explain how I feel about it, but I know one thing is when I see buildings getting vandalized and things like that happening, it’s unacceptable in my opinion, and we need to figure out how to control that and do it in a peaceful way and I think we’d all come to a better understanding, for sure, of the situation.’’

Julian Benbow can be reached at jbenbow@globe.com.