FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA./ AUGUST 17, 2018/ Riley Smith is not your average 12-year-old. This young activist has a big heart and passion for helping others, which has led her to enhance the lives of veterans in South Florida.
Project We Care is a family-based organization created to address the needs of homeless veterans. Riley Smith, a 7th grader at American Heritage School, has become sensitive to the deplorable conditions that our country’s veterans live with daily, having witnessed them on street corners begging and living in unideal conditions – motivating her to help those in need.
Riley has spearheaded the initiative by creating a system to address the needs of veterans participating in the Veterans Administration VASH (Veteran’s Administration Subsidized Housing). Project We Care contacts veterans to discuss their needs and assess the recommended inventory for “Care Packages” or Gift Cards based on the needs of each individual. Once a list is compiled, Riley arranges an assortment of common good to be delivered directly to the veteran.
With the goal of providing all the necessities for turning a bare apartment into a home, Riley channels her passion into making these packages – in hopes of creating a sanctuary devoid of the perils of homelessness, and a place where veterans can embark on the journey of healing both emotionally and physically.
Her overall goal is to inspire others to experience the selfless act of volunteering to help carry the weight of someone else’s sorrow. She realizes that problems, like Veteran’s poor living conditions, exist whether we like them or not and uses this reality as a motivator to help provide a better life for those in need.
“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts,” a quote written by Eleanor Roosevelt, is one of Riley’s inspirations for giving homeless veterans a fresh start with the help from Project We Care.
For more information on how to get involved in Riley’s initiative to help the local homeless veteran community, to learn more about the Project We Care mission, or to access other veterans resources, visit ProjectWeCare.org or call 888-237-6135.