Community Corner

Kiwanis Club Donates $1,200 to Local Volunteers

Lake Forest service club gives $1,200 to three Orange County nonprofits who support sick children and adults.

Jillian Ray took the $400 check the  gave her to further her charitable efforts and ran.

Ray, who runs a local charity that caters to children with cancer, wasn't being rude—the 10-year-old girl from Lake Forest was just worried she would be late to class at .

The diminutive blonde heads up Mini Pearls, which is a branch of Beckstrand Cancer Foundation, a Newport Beach-based nonprofit that works to improve and enhance the quality of life of children with cancer.

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Mini Pearls comprises Orange County students from kindergarten to sixth grade who commit their time to programs that enrich the experiences of kids diagnosed with cancer.

"We give them a reason to smile" through visits and care packages, Jillian said at a recent Kiwanis meeting.

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Another volunteer group that supports cancer patients, Knots of Love, also got a boost at the club's weekly meeting at .

The nonprofit organizes volunteers who knit soft caps for cancer patients and patients at brain surgery centers.

Volunteer Marilynn Murrell, of Mission Viejo, choked back tears as she accepted the Kiwanis donation for Knots of Love, which has given away more than 95,000 caps to date.

Another charitable organization, inCourage, also received a donation of $400 to assist in its efforts to bring gift bags to hospitalized children.

Co-founders and sisters Jane Lester and Tracey Irish—alumni of —partner with Children's Hospital of Orange County to supply many of the hospitalized children there with small bedside gift bags.

Recently, the foundation began a second partnership with CHOC at Mission.

The Kiwanis check is enough to "provide gift bags to every inpatient bed at CHOC Mission," Lester said after she accepted the donation to inCourage.

The donated the $1,200 to further the efforts of the three charities, which had made presentations to the group in the past year.


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