Just one of the items on Sutton Shanahan’s list of accomplishments would make her a top kind-hearted kid, but this 12-year-old Naples girl has a raft of acts of kindness that she has performed around the community and far beyond.
It all began when Sutton was 9 years old and her beloved aunt died of cancer.
“I wanted to start a business that helps kids with cancer,” Sutton said.
Her goal was to raise $15,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She created Kidz 4 a Cause, a nonprofit dedicated to helping kids raise money and awareness for change. Then she began writing letters, going on social media, and talking to people to secure donations. She helped organize a concert and found a singer to perform for free. Donations started coming in through Facebook and Instagram. Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top donated a guitar to be auctioned off.
“We wrote a $15,000 check for St. Jude’s,” Sutton said proudly.
Next she turned her attention to organizing other charity events in the community. She launched teacher supply, book, and toy drives. After Hurricane Ian, she helped raise money and gather supplies for people who lost their belongings in the storm.
Then she expanded her focus beyond Southwest Florida.
Sutton and her brothers started writing letters and sending packages to their mother’s friend’s son, who was deployed on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier.
Sutton then utilized Kidz 4 a Cause to gather donations from friends, family, community members, and even large corporations.
With the additional support, the number and type of items in the care packages began to grow, from the first shipment of towels to shirts, snacks, toothpaste, cooling towels, and more.
Chick-fil-A, Dude Wipes, Jel Sert, Robert Irvine’s Fit Crunch, and Mister Bandana donated more than $15,000 in products. More than 2,047 pounds of products were delivered to the ship.
When those on board the Eisenhower mentioned they liked to dip their food in sauces, Kidz 4 a Cause asked Chick-fil-A to donate thousands of sauce packets.
“Sauce is considered liquid gold on the ship because they just have ketchup and mustard,” explained Sutton.
It never hurts to ask
How did a kid who isn’t even a teenager yet secure these big donations?
“It never hurts to ask,” Sutton said. “We have gotten a ton of no’s and a lot have not responded, but that is ok. I feel like if you have never gotten a no, there would be no victory in getting a yes. You should just celebrate your victories.”
There are also a plethora of donations from individuals.
“People kept reposting our Amazon wish list, so we kept getting stuff at my door,” Sutton said.
There was so much arriving that she recently got a warehouse to store everything in while the items are sorted and sent to the aircraft carrier.
The USS Eisenhower just returned from the Red Sea and Sutton was invited to Virginia to tour the ship and meet the captain. Now that the Eisenhower is in port, Kidz 4 a Cause is shipping items to the USS Indianapolis and USS Wasp and will soon add the USS Truman.
“We need to continue it because it is one of our biggest events, and we have a lot of supplies left over,” Sutton said.
The seventh grader at the Community School of Naples holds Zoom meetings with business executives, posts on social media, and sorts and sends items to those in need, but she has another side to her busy life. She is an A student and participates in cross country at CSN. She was in the Florida All-State Chorus, is PADI (scuba) certified, serves as an ambassador for Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan and was a page for the Florida House of Representatives during the 2024 session. Last spring break, Sutton took part in a program at Vanderbilt University in Nashville studying molecular genetics and then returned for the Vanderbilt Summer Academy studying the human genome.
“And I have homework, and I have all that stuff,” Sutton said. “It is kind of hard to balance it out because I am in seventh grade now.”
Her friendships revolve around all this work. Sutton said her friend Alexa Hicks often helps with the nonprofit.
“She has been one of my biggest supporters,” Sutton said. “I feel like she is always there to help.”
Sutton’s mother, Jennifer Shanahan, says it is all about making volunteering enjoyable.
“Sutton turned volunteering into fun, and that is so important,” Shanahan began. “A lot of people think of volunteering as work or writing a check, but it can be comradery or a support team. It can be rewarding.”
Shanahan is incredibly proud of her daughter’s accomplishments.“You support your kids all the time, but when they want to support others rather than themselves, you listen harder,” she said. “Kids can do big things. They just need to find someone to believe in them. It is our role as a parent to believe in them.”