Local OC Teens Reach Out to Women at WISEPlace With Help and Hope

SANTA ANA, California, July 13, 2021 – Three Saddleback High School students recently brought help and hope, mixed with a dash of islands charm, to women residing temporarily at WISEPlace women’s bridge housing shelter in Santa Ana.

Teens Betsai Tapia, Monserrat Vergara and Perla Mendoza connected with the shelter to help fulfill the mission of Project Wellness, their community service program aimed to help the local homeless community. Mentoring the project is Dr. Angela M. Leung, an Associate Professor of Medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine.

For their celebration with WISEPlace, they staged an island-themed summer bash for the residents, complete with refreshments, props, and colorful leis. The focus of the celebration was a curated distribution of critical household items. Among the helpful items given out were gift cards, laundry baskets, pillows, blankets, bath towels, detergent, soap, wipes, trash bags, silverware, measuring spoons, plastic bowls, candles and can openers.

A written description of the project says the trio understands that being homeless can have a serious impact in the lives of people, not only physically but mentally and emotionally. Attempting to help and provide the homeless community with things that they need is a way to show that there are people that care and that they are never alone.

“Thank you again for helping make the event possible for the women at WISEPlace,“ said Lilly Dandrea, the shelter’s Volunteer & Program Engagement Manager.

WISEPlace is dedicated to providing participants with safe shelter and vital wrap-around services that include counseling and mental health services, case management and addiction recovery, and employment assistance to help rebuild their lives.

Project Wellness is one of 28 projects sponsored this year by the Dragon Kim Fellowship, a social entrepreneurship training program of The Dragon Kim Foundation, an Orange County, California-based nonprofit - http://dragonkimfoundation.org - whose mission is to inspire our youth to impact their communities while discovering and pursuing their passions.

The Foundation will be putting almost $150,000 back into our communities by granting up to $5,000 to each Dragon Fellowship team to bring their community service project to life.

The teams receive three weekends of leadership training and hands-on guidance from mentors from the community with experience in their project area, who are bringing diverse backgrounds in business, real estate, engineering, finance, computer science, healthcare, education and more.

“We congratulate Project Wellness and applaud their community spirit to help the women at WISEPlace gain back their independence,” said Foundation Executive Director, Grace Tsai Kim.

At the end of the program, Dragon Fellows will present their project to a panel of esteemed judges at the Dragon Challenge. The top projects may be eligible to compete for additional funding to continue their projects.

The Fellowship was founded in honor of the late Dragon Kim, a talented young musician, athlete and scholar who wanted to help others. It has become a seedbed for the next generation of creative thinkers and entrepreneurs who want to create positive change.

For more information, visit http://dragonkimfoundation.org.

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About the Dragon Kim Foundation

The Dragon Kim Foundation was established in 2015 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization by Grace and Daniel Kim to honor the memory of their late son Dragon Kim, who had been attending the Orange County School of the Arts. The mission of the Dragon Kim Foundation is to inspire our youth to impact their communities while discovering and pursuing their passions. http://dragonkimfoundation.org.