Kara was nominated by the Assistant Vice President of the CHOC Foundation to receive the 2023 FRED (For Really Extraordinary Doers) Award given by Sandy Segerstrom Daniels’ Festival of Children Foundation to youth in the community who show extraordinary efforts to better the community.

On August 30, 2023, at the Ancillary Studios at South Coast Plaza, Kara Nguyen was supposed to be honored as the recipient of the 2023 FRED Award. But to her surprise, Ms. Segerstrom Daniels, when hearing of Kara’s philanthropic efforts and activism in the community for the past 10 years, decided to create a new award in Kara’s name.

Kara was presented with the inaugural KARA Award (K-aring and Really Achieving). “From now on, this is your award, and you’re going to have to help us every year to find the next KARA Recipient,” spoken by Ms. Segerstrom Daniels. The night was to kick off the National Childhood Awareness Month celebrations at South Coast Plaza with a display of nonprofits dedicated to child development and performances from the community, activities for children, and lots more.

Kara hopes to inspire her peers and community members to join her in her efforts to make a difference in our community. Active words she lives by are “You’re doing great, but you can always do better.” Keep pushing yourself in whatever your interests are because you will make an impact in the lives of people around you.

Congratulations Kara, we are so extremely proud of you!

Looking for hidden treasures? The Tustin Parks and Recreation Department is holding its Community Yard Sale on Saturday, September 9, from 8 a.m. to noon at the Tustin Area Senior Center, 200 South C Street (next to Peppertree Park). Vendors will sell a variety of items, including appliances, clothes, toys, books, collectibles, electronics, sporting goods, furniture and much more. The event is open to the public.

For more information, please contact Deron Barner at Tustin Parks and Recreation: dbarner@tustinca.org or 714/573-3321.

TIDEPool Tutoring has been Revamped! Our high school tutors will be there to provide any help that our middle school students need. Remember to visit the TIDEPool on Tuesdays in the middle school commons during point break!

Good Afternoon parents and students!

We hope you all have been having a great school year so far. The month of September is ‘Pediatric Awareness Month’, and as a club that raises awareness and funds for children battling pediatric cancer, we started an initiative called ‘Project Gold Ribbon’ last September. ‘Project Gold Ribbon’ was a huge success last year - we raised $20K in funds and made it onto KTLA Morning News. We donated half the money to CHOC Pediatric Cancer Research Center and the other half directly to the children who were going through treatment, in order to buy them gifts and put smiles on their faces while they were going through that difficult time. We want to thank you all again for helping us raise all that money last year. The LMA community’s efforts helped so many children, and this year, we are so happy to announce that we will be launching ‘Project Gold Ribbon - Phase 2’ throughout the month of September. This year, we will be partnering with the CHOC Hospital Foundation, and will be donating all the funds raised to CHOC’s Pediatric Oncology Cancer Institute. We want this to be an effort by the entire LMA Community, not just the Create A Smile club. Create A Smile will be putting on multiple events this month to help raise money, so please be on the lookout for those!

Thank you and have a great long weekend!

Please donate below!

LMA’S Fundraising Page for CHOC Pediatric Cancer Research:

https://raiseup.choc.org/event/projectgoldribbon

Amani Shezad - President of Create A Smile

Alyssa Aranda - Vice President of Create A Smile