NAPLES, Fla. — One Naples girl is showing her community that people can make a real difference in the world, no matter how small.
Sutton Shanahan, Founder of Kidz 4 A Cause, is hoping to inspire young people to get involved and help their community.
Shanahan is helping her community through a new campaign, "Letters 4 Troops," from now until Veterans Day, November 11, 2023.
However, Shanahan says this is personal for her as she has a friend, Lawrence Signore, who is currently headed to the Middle East on USS Eisenhower with the US Navy.
"I think that there was something that needed to be done to help them out a little bit on their journey," said Shanahan.
Fox 4 spoke with Signore's mother, Kristen Signore, who says Sutton is an inspiration and always lends a helping hand where she can.
"He was being deployed to a war zone, Israel, so I think she knew how upsetting that was for a mom," said Signore. "Again, always looking to do good for the community and reached out and wanted to do something to help."
Signore says many of the men and women on board will spend their first holidays away from family, and she says letters like Sutton's help get them through a long deployment.
Shanahan tells Fox 4 she has used her platform to host food drives, fundraising after Ian, and much more. She also says she hopes to continue to do this type of work forever.
"I think he's [Lawrence] just so impressed that an 11-year-old is pulling something like this together not only to support him but his whole squadron," said Signore.
The letter-writing campaign will end on Veterans Day, which Shanahan says she hopes to have 2,000 letters to send off to the 2,000 Swordsmen on board.
For more information, go to the Kidz 4 A Cause website.
