PAGE B20
NORTH COAST
April 18, 2013
Canyon Crest Academy’s Junior Optimist Club’s Charity begins at home
(L-R): Kevin (Alpha Project Staff), Arthi Haripriyan, Kira Sedayo, Adrienne Rozells and Kara Nepomuceno. Canyon Crest Academy’s Junior Optimist Club members making sandwiches for the homeless.
The Canyon Crest Academy’s Junior Optimist Club (JOOI)’s 9th graders recently spent their weekend volunteering to put a smile on the faces of those less fortunate. The CCA JOOI Club was formed by a group of Canyon Crest Academy students who shared the interest of helping the community and making their four years of high school purposeful and memorable. Recently, four of the club’s members, Arthi Haripriyan, Adrienne Rozells, Kara Nepomuceno and Kira Sedayo, organized and participated in the St.Vincent De Paul event of making sandwiches for the homeless. With donated funds, they had a sandwich-making production line last Sunday at 9 a.m. How many peanut butter jars does one need to make 250 sandwiches? The team of four cranked out 250 sandwiches in three hours amidst good music, fun conversations and movie trivia. Besides being an important experience, it was also fun. It was a good bonding opportunity for the club. They then loaded the van up with the lunch bags and drove down to the shelter. Being fortunate to live in Carmel Valley, we don’t usually see homeless shelters that are often talked about, but this experience was eye opening. Homelessness is something many of those people did not choose. A few wrong turns, some misfortune and the bad economy have probably led them to a homeless situation. It gave us a clear picture of reality since it is quite possible for even one of our families to end up in such a situation. “Our first stop was the Neil Good Day Shelter. The minute we landed there with the food bags, there was an organized line of people who were waiting for lunch. It was a moving experience to see how there wouldn’t have been a lunch in their day if we did not take it to them. This was a stark reminder of what we take for granted in our day-to-day lives. Someone asked for bottled water which is when we realized that our next event needs to include water besides the sandwich and fruit that we had packed. We handed about 100 bags out. Everyone thanked us many times for lunch. Looking into their eyes and making that human connection was humbling. “Our second stop was at the Alpha Project (a nonprofit human services organization) winter shelter. This is a huge tent in a parking lot downtown. They set up a table and we handed out lunch bags to about 100 people. “God bless you!” said one of them.
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We toured the shelter that had beds and areas for food and clothing distribution. Toilets were port-o-pottys and showers were in a portable shower unit. Adults had rules that they would need to follow to be able to use the shelter. The shelter is in operation from November to April but has been extended to July this year. The Alpha Project employees serve the shelter day in and day out. Various organizations bring their donations to this shelter. They have snacks available during the day and are given one hot meal every day in the evening.” Kira Sedayo’s thoughts on this event were “Those that we served lunches to at the shelters were very nice people and they are just like everyone else.” Arthi Haripriyan’s thoughts were “It was an eye-opening experience and it really changed my perspective on homelessness and how we can do more to help those who are less fortunate” We felt that the sandwiches and fruit we took did not do justice to the need there was at the shelter. We returned with this feeling of wanting to do more and raise awareness among our communities so that each family will take some time and sign up to bring 250 lunches for at least one day in a year...We hope that this article and the few pictures we took will inspire the readers to take one day in your lives to bring lunches to the homeless people of our San Diego. Canyon Crest Academy’s four kids — Arthi Haripriyan, Adrienne Rozells, Kiera Sedayo and Kara Nepomuceno — made a huge difference last Sunday and gained experience that they will carry for the rest of their lives! Arthi and Adrienne were instrumental in starting the JOOI club at CCA and are energized by the like-minded members who have made the club fun and a great place to be. This effort was made possible by the following organizations and people: Special thanks to Carmel Valley’s Harini Narasimhan for setting up the sign-up process with the shelter. Thanks to Jim Perrot (member of the Del-Mar Solana Beach Optimist Club) for helping us start the JOOI club, Del-Mar Solana Beach Optimist Club for their contribution, Gia Rozells for her donation and hosting the event, Norine Sedayo for helping with the assembly and the Haripriyan Family for their donation. Special thanks to the Alpha project for the opportunity to serve and Kevin for the tour of the shelter.
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