Girl skips on Red Sox player's autograph to get signature of Army reservist

FORT MYERS, Fla. – A 7-year-old girl made a lasting connection with a hero in uniform during a Boston Red Sox open house in Florida on Feb. 18.

It happened at Jetblue Park at Fenway South in Fort Myers.

"Somebody that was famous that signed it, and it's very special to me," Makenna Woodburn said of the ball she had autographed.

It's signed by her hero and she's not letting it out of her sight.

"I want to save my allowance for a case and on Wednesday I'm going to take it to school with me for show-and-tell," Makenna said.

Makenna got the autograph while at a spring training event, but the ball's not signed by a baseball player.

The signature belongs to someone who plays for our country's team.

"One of the weirdest, best, feelings ever," U.S. Army Reservist Olyvia Russell said.

Russell was wearing her uniform when Makenna asked for her autograph.

"There was a huge line trying to get autographs, and this little girl she was in line to get the autographs, too, and she stepped out of line, lost her spot in line and came over to me and she was like, 'Can you sign my ball?'" Russell said.

So Russell signed it and hours later, the moment still stuck with both her and Makenna.

"I would really like to connect with her just to thank her personally," Makenna's mother, Aangie Woodburn, said.

"I was like wow I should've gotten her name or something. It's probably because like she's never seen like a woman in uniform because there's not as many of us out there," Russell said.

A simple post in a Facebook group reconnected them in just hours.

They're now friends on Facebook and hope to get together soon.

The post is now going viral.

"That is the coolest thing ever," Russell said.

Although it was a small gesture, it meant the world to both of them.

"She's the hero instead of baseball players," Woodburn said.

"This little girl. She proved to me that what I'm doing in life is OK and I'm something that's good enough," Russell said.

They all plan to get together for lunch within the next week.