Hurricane relief private charity event in Naples

 

A chance meeting for one woman and a child both wanting to help after Hurricane Ian, and now they have teamed up.

A quest that Aletha Shapiro went on to help her community after Hurricane Ian turned into a blessing in disguise.

The Florida Poor Peoples Campaign rallied on Saturday at St. Phillip CME Church, where Shapiro spoke about a struggling community in Naples.

Shapiro met Malanie when she stopped in her mobile home community to check on her and her neighbors. Melanie told Shapiro she just wanted a bed for her neighbor.

“I said, ‘Melanie, you need to be my assistant. Yeah. And you need to bring me to all your neighbors and add up the translator and ask them what they need. And maybe I have it maybe I don’t have it but we will go get it.’ Melanie was in charge of her community,” Shapiro said.

Reverend Phoebe Presson agreed to let St. Phillip CME Church be a place that the Florida Poor Peoples CAmpaign can use to help those in need after the hurricane.

“When you know that a community is hurting, you have to do something. And the small things make some big impact,” Presson said.

Feeling fulfilled from partnering with the campaign, Aletha can’t help but be proud of herself.

“These are like an example of like, the really high points of the hurricane work is meeting amazing people. And, you know, like, hopefully, I can inspire Melanie, you know, to choose a track of helping others,” Aletha said.

“And it was actually really hard. I helped a lot. Aletha, she actually helped me think about helping a lot of people. My heart is bigger,” Melanie said.