A Packer Township teenager who is also the 2017 Miss State Capitol’s Outstanding teen is hoping to raise money for a foundation that started after the Sept. 11 attacks, as well as help a local veteran who lost his limbs while serving his country.

Jillian Bartel is currently organizing a 5K run for the Steven Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation. The run will take place at Eurana Park in Weatherly at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. The money raised from the run will also directly benefit Timothy Donley of New Tripoli, a Marine Corps veteran currently on the waiting list for a smart home through the foundation.Bartel said she is organizing the event because it is something she believes in.“For my platform, I am spreading the word about an amazing organization that I have been involved with both as a participant and a volunteer for the last eight years,” she wrote.The Steven Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation was created shortly after Sept. 11, 2001.Bartel said, Stephen Siller was a firefighter during the 9/11 attacks and died doing what he did every day as a firefighter, helping people.“Steven Siller was off-duty on that morning, turned his car around, parked by the Brooklyn Battery tunnel and ran through the tunnel in order to get to the World Trade Center site,” Bartel wrote. “When Steven exited the tunnel he jumped on a rig and met up with his fire company at the towers. Unfortunately, Steven did not make it home that day.”Siller’s family chose to remember their loved one and follow in his footsteps by creating the foundation, which supports the Building for America’s Bravest foundation, an organization that builds smart homes for servicemen and women who have experienced the loss of multiple limbs while serving the United States.“These smart homes are customized homes that contain various features such as automatic lights and doors, adjustable counters and cabinets, and wide doorways and showers that are all handicap accessible,” Bartel wrote. “These homes help our heroes be able to live a much more independent, productive life; which would be extremely difficult to do in a regular home. It is clear that by having these smart homes, simple tasks become easier.”During the satellite run in Weatherly, she plans to also honor local first responders and local military servicemen and women.Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard said it is going to be a very good event for the community and urged everyone to attend.For more information about the run or to sign up, visit

www.crowdrise.com/T2TCarbonCounty2017.