(Fox News) A Florida teenager is carving intricate American flags to help raise money in support of homeless veterans, children with special needs and medical professionals across the country.
Lakewood Ranch’s 15-year-old Lorenzo Liberti makes the flags — which he sells and donates — in his garage, using 13 planks of pinewood and working day and night.
The teen has only been producing the “Heroic Flags” for the past eight months, but has already completed 50 and raised thousands of dollars for special needs kids, homeless veterans and the Turning Points nonprofit in Bradenton, Fla., according to WFTS-TV, the local ABC affiliate.
On his website, Liberti explained that he was inspired after meeting a struggling veteran while his church group was working at a nearby soup kitchen.
“The encounter made an impression on me,” he wrote. “‘How could America abandon the [servicemen and servicewomen] who fought for our freedom?’, I thought to myself. I wanted to do something about it but wasn’t sure how a [14-year-old] boy could make an impact.”
Using a GoFundMe page, Liberti is raising money to try and place one of his flags in a hospital in every state. He already has a 7-foot flag hanging in the Sarasota Memorial Hospital network where his mother works.
Thus far, the artist has netted almost $8,600 of his $50,000Â fundraising goal.
