Girl Spearheads Letter-Writing Campaign for Soldiers

About a year ago, 11-year-old Savannah Maddison of Florida wanted to cheer up her friend, Wilson, whose father had been deployed to Afghanistan. She wrote Wilson a song, but that didn’t feel like enough.

So she decided to set a goal of writing letters to all 700 troops deployed with Wilson’s dad. When friends came over, she gave them pen and paper. When it felt like the goal was still too far away, she started speaking at other schools and even at Miami Marlins games to rally support. 

The letters started pouring in. Savannah eventually met and exceeded her goal, and added a naval unit and an army battalion to reach more than 1,000 service men and women. She’s still gathering letters today; you can even e-mail a letter to the troops through her website.

Sweet footnote: Wilson’s dad made it home to his family, just in time for Christmas.