Hurricane Ian Relief for Naples and Ft Myers!

Hi. My name is Hailey Shapiro. I am a Junior in High School as well as the President of the Key Club at Barron Collier HS. Although I moved to Naples from Long Island a little over a year ago, this is my home. I love it here. The sunsets, the weather, the people and so much more. But in order to become a true Floridian, I guess I needed to live through my first hurricane down here too. Living through Hurricane Ian is experience that will stay with me forever. While my family and home made it through, this was as bad as it could possibly be for countless neighbors and businesses in our community. The hurricane destruction has demolished homes, ravaged the beach, and uprooted the lives of hundreds upon thousands in Southwest Florida. Families and friends are unable to get in touch with loved ones as power is down and cell service is spotty and overwhelmed. Many locals are unable to access food and running water. After leaving my home today, I was able to safely drive around town to witness the destruction with my own eyes. Beaches I enjoyed with friends were completely filled with debris ranging from doors to couches, plastics, toys, buckets, fences, etc. Cars were toppled onto another. Boats were wedged into the tinniest of areas, up on sidewalks and blocking traffic. Trees were toppled over like dominos, uprooted and destroyed. Stores we shopped at, Restaurants we ate at: Flooded. Unfortunately there are countless deaths as well from those that couldn’t evacuate quick enough. This is the scene throughout Southwest Florida. It is has brought tremendous sadness. But by late afternoon the day after the hurricane, the clouds cleared and the sun was beaming through. It slowly became a “perfect” Naples afternoon, like many other I’ve had since I’ve been here. Only it wasn’t because of what just transpired. However it has also given me hope. That things can return to normal over time. And in order to do that, the community needs to band together. We all need to do whatever we can. So I am going to try to mobilize my friends, my classmates, my neighbors and community members to raise money in the coming days in order to provide essential goods for displaced families in the Naples and Fort Myers area. 100% of funds raised will be donated directly to families in need in these areas. I will personally oversee how funds are disbursed and all the aide will go to where it is most needed, especially to those families with young children who have lost everything. Please consider donating whatever you can to help out cause. We can use all the help we can get to restore Southwest Florida back to what it used to be.