‘Miss Sawyer’s Kids With a Cause,’ Thankful for its Volunteers

“I kinda hope that they look at them as a reminder that what they’re doing is actually really good and we are thinking about them.”

A physical reminder that those of us at home– appreciate all that our united states armed forces sacrifice.

“It initially started when my brother joined the marine corp when I was six and a half.”

Ludington’s Sawyer Hendrickson is a familiar face to many.

The 12 year old started a non-profit organization — six years ago — dedicated to giving back to veterans and active duty military.

She says, “My ‘Hearts for Heroes‘ project which is my Valentines package project, and in March for my birthday we’re going to go to Arlington National Cemetery for my ‘Roses to Remember‘ project that we’ve done for the past four years.

The non-profit, Miss Sawyer’s Kids With A Cause, is constantly working on new projects —

All the magic happens inside her mother’s little bridal shop…Volunteering her time making care packages for our troops here in the U.S. and bases across 70 countries.

“Watching them send all these boxes out, and knowing that I was apart of doing that, it just makes me feel happy.”

But she’s not in it alone.

“The veterans and military, they don’t get as much love and appreciation for what they should get,” says Annabelle Babe, who has been part of the organization for two years.

Destiny Ramirez has dedicated four years to the non-profit. She says, “We make our goals each year, bigger and bigger. Each year, I know that we make a goal, that we can reach to and all the times I know, we’ve reached that goal.”

This is just a small fraction of the volunteers that help make this non-profit what it is today.

‘Miss Sawyer’s Kids With A Cause’ is made up of about 25 kid volunteers, and about 40 to 50 adults.

“It’s really fun, I like doing the work and helping,” says eight year old Courtney Carrasco.

Stacia Mackersie, high school senior and four year volunteer tells us how it all started. “It was an elective at our school, and I went into it thinking that it would be fun, and it get me out of the classroom and out of school. And I started to really enjoy it. Covid kind of happened, everything got crazy but we we’re still doing everything we could to try to help.”

This group of girls has really formed a special bond over the years.

“We’ve bonded so much over the past couple years with us doing this project. The whole entire time we’re doing this just completely flies by,” says Hendrickson.

Ramirez proudly states, “We all started out as strangers, like didn’t even know each other, coming in here and growing a bond. It’s been pretty great.”

And the medals each one of them wear proudly,

Represents the hours the girls have committed to volunteering their time to these projects.

“It makes me feel really proud of myself that I’m able to sometimes change people’s lives just by a simple care package. It’s really shocking to me how much this has affected people,” says Hendrickson.

Without their teamwork, this successful organization wouldn’t be where it is today.

Babe tells us she got to tag along with Hendrickson to give out their care packages. She explains, “When we go to D.C. we did give out at someof the bases, and they just had big, bright smiles on their faces.”

“They’ve kinda grown on me like a family. I like the experience and the reason why they do it,” says Mackersie.

But if there was one thing the girls aren’t taking for granted, it’s their hands!

“Snack mix gets a little boring, makes your hands cramp, but it’s fun.”