Teen-Led Initiative Raises Over $55,000 for LA Fire Relief

By AUDREY SMITH | Intern

Following the Los Angeles wildfires, 18-year-old Aliyah Redding and 19-year-old Kyle Godwin wanted to give back to their communities.

Aliyah, from Pacific Palisades, and Godwin, from Pasadena, partnered to launch Teens4LA, an initiative to provide disaster relief, as well as mental health and wellness support, to youth affected by the fires.

Teens4LA partnered with Another Awesome Day, a nonprofit organization that focuses on mental health for teens. The initiative has since added three more members: Madison Baffo, Thane Douglass and Julie Menutti.

In five months, Teens4LA raised over $55,000, with $10,000 in its first 36 hours and $20,000 within its first two weeks. Some of the crisis response and community organizations that have been supported by Teens4LA include Project HOPE, Los Angeles Fire Department, Walk Good LA, California Fire Foundation and Altadena Girls Fire Recovery.

Redding, an incoming freshman at Carnegie Mellon University, previously lived in Marquez Knolls. He attended Coeur d’Alene Avenue Elementary School, Paul Revere Charter Middle School and Palisades Charter High School his freshman year, before moving to Santa Barbara County, where he attended The Dunn School in Los Olivos.

Redding said he felt compelled to take action after watching the fires devastate his old neighborhood and high school.

“As a Pali alum—but also someone who grew up in that community—I wanted to make a difference,” Redding said. “I wanted to take immediate action.”

Baffo, head of community and social marketing, shared a similar sentiment.

“Many of the families I attended school with and grew up around were directly affected by the fires,” she said. “Watching everything unfold in real time and feeling how close it all was to home motivated me on a personal level to do something about it.”

To broaden the initiative’s reach, Redding combined traditional fundraising with blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies.

“Part of why I turned to crypto was because I was able to pull from a global donor base, rather than just my local community,” he explained.

According to Redding, about 49% of the donations Teens4LA received came from crypto.

“Donors receive unique digital artwork as a form of receipt or ‘badge’ when they make a donation,” Baffo said.

More than 20 “global digital communities and digital artists” have worked on ART4LA Proof of Donation Collectibles.

Teens4LA was honored with the Social Innovation Crypto For Good Award at the 2025 Social Innovation Summit in San Francisco, and the Limitless World Summit named Redding a Top 100 Emerging Innovator for 2025.

Teens4LA was also featured at the innovation festival ETHDenver, which was attended by 25,000 people, and at LA Check In, a livestream benefit supporting individuals and organizations impacted by the LA fires.

In September, the initiative’s impact will be recognized at the Y3K Innovation Summit hosted on the campus of UCLA.

Looking to the future, the initiative is expanding “in both reach and scope” by working with “young people in other cities and states around the country to replicate the ‘Teens4’ model to support their local initiatives.” They are working with student groups and other communities with a goal of providing “long-term mental health support and disaster response infrastructure for students.”

Redding said that Teens4LA received tremendous support because “people want to help” and “are naturally inclined to want to do the right thing.”

Baffo agreed: “It’s powerful to witness how people come together in moments of crisis when they’re given the tools and opportunity.”

For more information, visit teens4la.org.