The Neilon Family When it comes to being a force for good in the world, Santa Margarita Catholic High School family, the Neilons, are a shining example. Last year during National Giving Day, the entire Neilon family contributed to Santa Margarita, including their son Tyler Neilon ’14, who now attends USC, and their son Brett Neilon ’17, who is a junior at Santa Margarita. Giving from current students and recent graduates is not a consistent trend and that is what makes the Neilons’ gifts all the more unique. Parents, Cora and Mike Neilon show continuous involvement to Santa Margarita initiatives and their contributions know no bounds. Cora has volunteered on the annual gala committee and has been an active member of the Mothers Club. Both Cora and Mike have been active in the football and basketball programs and their philanthropy touches Santa Margarita in the most meaningful ways. Cora believes that the benefit of living overseas for several years has played a role in immersing her boys into a giving culture. When the boys were young, Cora and Mike involved them in important service initiatives that provided support to those in need. In order to expose their boys to the impact that their giving could achieve, they served in many locations such as delivering rice and food items at an orphanage in Cambodia. In addition, the Neilons were in Japan during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, the strongest earthquake to ever hit Japan which claimed more than 15,000
lives. Tyler and Brett have vivid memories of the event and the immediate action that their parents took to initiate a meaningful response from their family. This left such an impression on Brett that it prompted him to create and sell emergency preparedness bags, which he calls Grab ‘n Go bags. The bags contain leather gloves, emergency survival blanket, LED headlight, a whistle and five pouches of drinking water. Brett took helping others a step further and donated the profits from the packets to the Santa Margarita Eagle Fund during National Giving Day. “We’ve been blessed to teach the boys from a young age how important it is to give back,” said Cora. “We chose Santa Margarita because it is a caring and philanthropic community.”
L to R Cora Neilon, Brett Neilon ’17 and Mike Neilon
Tyler Neilon ’14
I chose to give back to Santa Margarita because it was a school that significantly helped me get to where I am today. Along with the faculty that provided me with the proper guidance and care, I met some of my closest friends, won a CIF championship in basketball and was propelled academically to the University of Southern California. Having lived in Japan for 13 years, I view that country as home. After the huge earthquake in March of 2011, I was able to go up to the tsunami and earthquake stricken region and help rebuild. Our work was pretty small and limited, but once we finished all of the people we helped gave us hugs and were so happy. It was important to me because Japan and its people had been the most gracious hosts to my family during our 13 years there. Being able to give back to the country in a time of need was extremely important for me as a way of saying thank you for teaching me so much.
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