Los Alamitos Area Students Honored at Disneyland's Dreamers And Doers Awards

LOS ALAMITOS, CA — Disneyland's Dreamers and Doers were recognized at a luncheon this week. Not just ordinary kids, these high school students have each done something exceptional within their community, worthy of recognition for the award Walt Disney inspired.

"The greatest moments in life are not concerned with selfish achievements, but rather with the things we do for others," Walt Disney said. Rooted in Disney's "power of possibility," the Dreamers and Doers empowers students who are making their dreams come true, leading all into a brighter future.

This year, the students selected for the award crossed Orange County, from Rancho Santa Margarita's Santa Margarita Catholic High School, San Juan Capistrano's San Juan Hills High School, Huntington Beach's Marina High School, Aliso Niguel High School in Aliso Viejo, and Oxford Academy, in Cypress.

Rancho Santa Margarita's own Sydney Fredette accepted her award.

Fredette founded "Beary Merry Christmas," a local organization to provide holiday gifts and goods to underprivileged motel kids.

"In the past nine years they donated 2,000 bears, 1,000 blankets, 500 books, and truck loads of clothing, shoes, food and pajamas," a Disneyland spokesperson said on her behalf. "She is also the founder of "Be the Change" club at Santa Margarita Catholic High School, encouraging peers to give back to those in need.

Basil Totah, academic counselor: “I think what is unique about Sydney is her passion and drive to help others around her. ‘Be the Change’ is a club on campus that Sydney started when she was a freshman in high school – she’s been the president ever since. It’s a club designed to help the poor, homeless youth in our community, and she’s done a remarkable job collecting food, blankets, books – anything you could think of to help those in her community. She has an unbelievable ability to bring people together and work with people.”

San Juan Capistrano's Dalton Bourne received his award.

Dalton Bourne, of San Juan Hills High School vollected funds from community businesses to purchase 600 microfiber bags for his fellow students that read “On the Road, Off the Phone,” and were given to students who pledge to not be on their phones while driving by slipping their phones into the bag. Parents of students have asked for bags for themselves.

Darrin Jindra, assistant principal had this to say:

“Dalton has a very strong personality, a very confident personality. He comes across as a leader. Dalton came to me and pitched a safety initiative where he wanted to encourage teen drivers to stay off their phone while in the car. He went out and fundraised and got the funding necessary and designed a cell phone bag to where when you’re in the car, you put your cell phone in the bag so you’re not tempted to text while you’re driving. ‘On the road, off the phone.’ We passed them out to more than 400 students – I’ve even had parents come in and ask me if they can have one for themselves to help them when they drive in their own cars. With that many of those bags out in the community, with cell phones being put in while they’re driving, I’m sure that Dalton has saved someone’s life along the way.”

Huntington Beach's Austin Hwang received his award.

Austin Hwang, a Marina High School student from Huntington Beach, started Marina WAVE, a student club that focuses on water conservation and education.

"They have volunteered more than 400 hours and raised over $7,000 donated to well-building projects in Uganda and India," a Disneyland spokesperson said.

He created and coded the Marina WAVE website, which was featured on several blogs reaching thousands of people. He created interactive slides and electronic game polls to educated others and expand club membership.

According to Earl Ziemann, the social studies department coordinator, Austin is one of those kids who is always prepared.

"When he does something, he does it well. (Austin is) at the top of his class. As president of the Marina WAVE club, Austin is in charge of organization<" Ziemann said. "The club focuses on water issues; I think the drought inspired him to look at those issues more closely. And they not only teach our kids on our campus about the drought and water issues but they decided they want to raise some money and do something – so they decided they wanted to try to fund fresh-water wells. They just completed one of those projects in Uganda, they raised over $7,000 in barely over a year and now that money is also being funded into a project in India. I think it’s just amazing that anyone can accomplish as much as he does. He’s one of those kids that, as a teacher, you just love having kids like Austin.”

Alisa Ogranovich of Aliso Viejo accepts her award.

Alisa Ogranovich started a Second Harvest Food Bank chapter at Aliso Niguel High School, collecting more than 250 boxes/7,000 pounds of food at monthly food drives and fundraisers at local grocery stores. She started holding “mobile pantry” events, providing food to low-income and high poverty communities.

Christina Sepe, Spanish teacher and club advisor for Second Harvest Food Bank: “I think that Alisa is a born leader and she is very in-tune with what she wants to do, and she cares more about the broader community than herself. The mobile pantry is a food organization that goes around to different locations and gives food banks and different families food. Alisa spends a lot of her weekends and distributes food, sorts it and helps load up the pantry so the students can see right away the food is going somewhere, it’s just not going to be stored in one particular location. Alisa inspires me because she is very selfless, she’s very sweet, and she never expects anything in return, and that makes it even more special.”

Cypress student Anna Lou, of Anaheim Union High School, accepts her award.

President of Orange County Coder, a club that provides computer coding classes to students and free technology services at local senior centers. They’ve recruited 150 high school volunteers to teach 150 courses to more than 1,200 participants. She also created the “Scratch in Schools” initiative, which provides beginning, intermediate and advanced computer coding classes and has reached over 500 students at nine Orange County elementary schools.

Dr. James Li, Ardent Academy for Gifted Youth: “What inspires me most about Anna is her passion. When I first met her, she demonstrated tremendous love for computer science. Anna made an impact in the community with two significant contributions: one is bringing the concept of coding to a younger generation and the second is her dedication to involve more girls with coding. She is the one who instrumentally brought a program called “Girls Who Code” which is a national organization, into OC Coder. She is very instrumental to organizing the students and running the classes. Now the classes are so popular that when an announcement comes out, within five minutes all the spots are taken!”

About the Dreamers and Doers Awards

The Disneyland Resort strives to drive positive change through four focus areas: Strengthen Community, Think Creatively, Conserve Nature, Live Healthier. We invite Orange County high school students once again to share their stories of how they are taking action to create a brighter tomorrow in these four focus areas:

• Strengthen Community: Bring hope, happiness, and comfort to children and families.
• Think Creatively: Nurture creative thinking skills to inspire children and families to create the future they imagine.
• Conserve Nature: Connect children and families with nature to build lifelong conservation values.
• Live Healthier: Make healthier living fun and accessible.

Photos, courtesy Disneyland Resort