. >> reporter: rachel wheeler may look like a typical adolescent, giggling with girlfriends, going to school dances. >> still makes a very big impact. >> reporter: but she does something most 12-year-olds don't. she worries about kids who live hundreds of miles and yet a world away from her in haiti. rachel was 9 when she met this man who runs florida's biggest charity, food for the poor, and gave a presentation about haitian children who don't have enough to eat, don't have a place to call home. rachel believed that was just plain wrong and vowed to help him build homes for haiti's unsheltered. she ran bake sales, passed a can at homecoming games, appealed to local businesses. >> $2600 for rachel tonight. >> reporter: thousands of small contributions added up to now over a quarter of a million dollars. >> i love you. >> reporter: rachel never travels to haiti empty-handed. delivering care packages to needy children who lost their school and five of their classmates in the 2010 earthquake. in the small fishing village here, too, the shy young girl is a hero. >> is it overwhelming? >>