10-Year-Old Star Police Advocate Visits San Angelo

A 10-year-old girl from Tyler whose name has repeatedly appeared in national news visited the San Angelo Police Department on Tuesday morning, where she had been invited speak as an inspirational police advocate.

The young advocate, Savannah Solis, showed up with hand-drawn cards for the department’s officers and gave a brief speech to those present, exclaiming how she is honored to be a voice for her generation.

“I want to be a voice for all kids to let the world know that we love and respect our police officers,” Savannah said. “They have daughters, like me, who wait for their mothers and fathers to come home every night. Because of this, I have a goal. My goal is to tell as many police officers as I can that I love them and that I’m thankful for all that they do for us.”

Solis told her heroes to never give up and to stand up for what matters. She expressed her appreciation for law enforcement worldwide, and explained how it all began, when NYPD officers Liu and Ramos were killed on Dec. 20 last year.

“I’ve always loved police officers, so what happened to Officer Liu and Officer Ramos made me really sad so I started making cards,” the 10-year-old said.

Savannah’s quiet admiration for law enforcement started at a young age and she and her family expressed their gratitude by delivering cupcakes to Chapel Hill Police in her church’s parking lot, a press release about her visit states. Upon hearing of the murders of NYPD Officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, Savannah was inspired to take her message of gratitude to the next level; making hundreds of thank-you cards for New York officers as well as police throughout Texas. 

Word of Savannah’s message has traveled quickly and her story circulated through national press.  She has since been honored by the Texas House of Representatives and Governor Greg Abbott and she has traveled to New York, Austin, New Orleans, and London to deliver her message and cards to law enforcement, the release continues.

Savannah wants to be a police officer when she gets older and has initiated the “Savannah Challenge” nationwide, encouraging other children to make cards and send them to law enforcement officers all over the United States. To date, over 90,000 children have taken that challenge.

“It makes me feel good because now kids are saying ‘thank you’ to all the officers,” she said on Tuesday.

Savannah’s visit to San Angelo was organized by Candace Francis and a group of local police wives, who found the young advocate on Facebook and began communicating with her mother about coordinating a trip. After receiving the green light from Chief Tim Vasquez, the women donated money and art supplies to give to Solis as a “thank you”.

“It’s just—touching is probably an understatement,” officer Raymond Francis said of Solis. “To see a girl at this age wanting to do this and to take the time out to do this means a lot to us. We don’t see this a lot. Kids her age are more about playing and riding their bikes or whatever. This little girl, she’s taking her time out from her Christmas break, from her Spring Break, just to do this.”

Francis said he was honored to have the 10-year-old guest at the city’s department, and noted that her family has no ties to law enforcement whatsoever, thus making her support even more impressive.

“We see people at the bottom of their day,” Francis said. “It doesn’t matter how minor or how major it is, we see people at the very bottom of their day and over a time it takes a toll on us. To have something like this, a kind of positive reaction to us, it makes a difference to us.”

In order that Savannah be able to continue her advocacy for officers throughout the nation and world, the local San Angelo Police Officer's Association donated her $200. With that money she can continue to travel, make cards and do other activities to promote a positive relationship between the public and police.

“My wife and I, on behalf of our law enforcement family…presented a check to Mr. Solis to hopefully offset some of his expenses of traveling and the time that it’s taken them to make her dream come true,” retired Sergeant John E. Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said he was blown away with the support the young girl has shown for police. “It’s absolutely phenomenal that this little girl has taken an idea and made—through some hard work—made it a reality.”