18-year-old Dariana had helped decorate her classroom door the whole morning, and when she stood in front of the painting of the Grinch stealing Christmas, she had a permanent smile stretched across her face.

At her school, Avalon Continuation High School in Wilmington, the Grinch hadn’t come. Instead, seven volunteers from King’s Harbor Church came to deliver Christmas trees to students’ families in need.

Dariana stands in front of her class' entry in Avalon's Christmas door competition.

“It means a lot because a lot of people right now can’t buy a tree,” Dariana said.

At Avalon, the site of ShareFest’s year-round Youth Development Academy, 80 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches because of their families’ financial situation. Aware of this, the state of the economy and the holidays quickly approaching, Principal Regina Awtry knew she had students at her school whose families couldn’t afford a tree. When ShareFest approached her with the idea of donating trees, she jumped at it.

“The intrinsic value, I can’t even express,” Awtry, said. “When our kids are the recipients of people’s kindness and generosity, then it is my hope and it is my expectation for our kids that some day they will be in the position that they’ll be able to do the same for someone else. We plant the seeds in the kids that communities help each other out.”

On Dec. 11, Awtry’s voice flooded through the loudspeaker, filling the two-building campus before the scheduled  lunch-time and announcing the arrival of their guests. Avalon’s 120 students hurried out of class when they heard ShareFest volunteers had brought donuts for each of them and Christmas trees for those who needed them.

Volunteers cut and load the trees on their way to Avalon.

In the spirit of ShareFest, the volunteers delivering the trees weren’t willing to drop their gifts and leave. They wanted a chance to interact with the students.

“The trees were just an in-road to get to communicate to these kids and encourage them, hope to inspire them and ultimately bless them,” Todd Pearson from King’s Harbor said.

It was a gesture of generosity the future leaders at Avalon are already learning to imitate with a canned food drive ending Wednesday. They are already becoming leaders in a community of care and passing on what they can to those in need.

“It’s the Christmas spirit, and it’s lovely,” Ana, an 11th grade student, said.

Click here to see more photos.

Attendees at ShareFest’s Sixth Annual Evening of Community Fundraiser got the first glimpse of our 2009 Workday video, but now it’s online for all to see.

Pass it along, especially to any of our generous volunteers.

Ruby, a student from Avalon High School — a continuation school in Wilmington — faced  350+ community leaders in suits, ties and dresses. Her voice quivered slightly while she read from her notecards, but she pushed through to the end and delivered her message: Thank you. Thank you for a second chance.

The high school student stood on stage and told the room how she’d hit some bad bumps in her life, but the leadership program through ShareFest’s year-round Youth Development Academy helped her get control of her life.

“You guys have all helped so many of us,” Ruby said, speaking on behalf of students at Avalon High School.

Ruby thanks ShareFest supporters for giving her and Avalon students a new chance.

Ruby exemplified ShareFest’s Evening of Community Fundraiser on November 7 at the Torrance Marriott where guests heard the essence of ShareFest from the mouths of the people it serves.

It was a night to support ShareFest monetarily through silent and live auctions, but more importantly, it let attendees hear the Voices of ShareFest, voices like Ruby’s.

Throughout the evening, donors celebrated ShareFest projects such as building a community center in Harbor Gateway where 200 children and families had recently watched a movie outside. Two years ago, this property was nothing more than a dirt lot where families were afraid to venture out because of prevalent racial violence.

A bidder raises his hand during the live auction.

Ruby was just one of many to voice her experience with ShareFest, and she is one of many more to come. Through the Workday and newly announced year-round Youth Development Academy, ShareFest is creating lasting positive change in the community and training leaders to sustain it.

Saturday was a night for the those serving and those served to celebrate the change taking place and become a catalyst for even more.

“It’s great to witness the whole community come out to support ShareFest,” Anwar Shariff, a counselor at the summer YDA, said at the fundraiser.

If you could not attend the fundraiser but would like to support ShareFest, please click here to find out how.

In Michoacán, Mexico, Esteban Carranza started his education in a two-room school. His world was completely different from the one he found in Wilmington, California, when he came to the U.S. at 11 years old.

In Mexico he tended to his uncle’s plot, looked after cows when his grandfather was sick and received food — not cash — for any work. His drive for soccer might be the only part of his childhood Esteban and kids in Wilmington would have had in common.

Despite the difference in the U.S., Esteban never stopped pursuing the education his father and family continually told him would be a catalyst for success. With the support of his family, ShareFest and the Wilmington community, Esteban has overcome any hindrance and is starting his second year at the University of California San Diego — a college larger than the 100-house hometown.

The sophomore math major’s life has been indelibly changed by coming to Wilmington, in some good ways and some negative ways. The city was an intimidating factor for Esteban when he started middle school, but by eighth grade, he rose to the top of his class. And after working through high school at Banning, Esteban was set to start college.

Days before Esteban was headed to UC San Diego for his first semester, his laptop was stolen the same week he bought it. A bag full of electronic, already packed to move into his dorm, was taken from his house. But — rallied by ShareFest — the Wilmington and wider community stood up to counteract the crime committed against Esteban and fight the negative image of Wilmington that type of act creates.

“ShareFest provided me with a new laptop and with all the equipment I would need for it plus a new way to look at life,” Esteban said.

Esteban poses with Pilar Hoyos, Vice President of Public Affairs at Watson Land Company. Watson Land Company along with other businesses and private donors helped provide Esteban with replacement items for ones stolen from his home. The computer helped Esteban earn a 3.0 GPA during his first year at UCSD.

At first, a call for help came from Esteban’s uncle. He told Rubin Harsoyo, the L.A. City Neighborhood Prosecutor for Wilmington, what had happened. Rubin, assigned to prosecute criminals from the neighborhood, had seen the work ShareFest did in the Cruces neighborhood in Wilmington, fighting gang activity by giving productive outlets and a new perspective to the youth and families there, so, naturally, Rubin’s next call was to ShareFest.

Within days, before leaving for college, Esteban received a new laptop and calculator funded by donors coordinated by ShareFest.

It was Esteban’s introduction to ShareFest and its commitment to creating caring communities and connecting with children and families.

“Sharefest has done that with my family and me. I will never forget what ShareFest and the Community of Wilmington did for me,” Esteban said.

He said that support, mental, emotional and tangible, has kept him motivated, allowed him to bypass the traffic jam of students vying for school electronics and helped him complete his first year with a 3.0 GPA.

“My first year at the University of California San Diego has been the best experience of my life,” Esteban said.

Esteban has begun his second year at college, and he’s not about to stop. He wants to leave his impact, like the community and ShareFest already have on him.

“I don’t want to work in a fast food restaurant for the rest of my life. I will not give my chance to study for anything in the world because knowledge allows us to have a broader perspective of the world. And with a broader perspective we can help more people not just a small community,” he said. “I have come so far and I will not stop now.”

18 years ago, Shannell McMillan felt she had no purpose. But in July her purpose was to show 150 youth from under-served communities just how important their lives and impacts are.

Shannell took a long path to where she is today, inspiring purpose in others. Almost two decades ago, she was despondent in her relationships and desire to prove her self-worth through her accomplishments, which never seemed to be enough. She decided to make a change.

“I was going to go downstairs, change my laundry, come back up and kill myself,” she said.

She’d laid out the pills she was going to take, chosen her outfit and thought she’d seen her younger sister asleep in her room, but when she went downstairs, Shannell walked in on a horrific scene.

“When I went downstairs, I found my sister who had just shot herself. That pretty much made up my mind.”

At that point, Shannell decided to follow her sister’s example and reached for the gun.

Inexplicably, she couldn’t even get her finger on the trigger. Not from fear or lack of desire — Shannell simply could not get in reach of the gun. She said something held her back, keeping her from getting anywhere near her sister or in reach of the gun. That’s when one of the most defining moments of her life happened.

“I told God if he wouldn’t let me kill myself, he had to give me a purpose for my life,” Shannell said.

Now, Shannell can tell you that purpose in one breath: to ignite the pursuit of purpose in everyone she meets.

And during the Youth Development Academy at Cal State University Dominguez Hills, she acted that mission out through 150 students. Each one of them came away with a defined purpose, goal and better understanding of themselves from her workshop with the Path4Teens curriculum.

Shannell helping students identify what they want more and less of in their lives

First they identified their own core values and talents. Using those, they created a mission statement to help guide their life and inspire others, whether their focus be education, respect, growth or anything they deem important in their lives. Finally, they mapped out where they want to be in ten years so they can start working toward the goal of being a star athlete, doctor, writer or college graduate.

As Shannell put it, “It focuses them like a laser.”

Whether it’s from sick coincidence or an unconventional sense of humor, Shannell found her purpose is to guide others to their mission without going through the same pain that focused her life. In July at the YDA, she saw her purpose in action.

“It’s a powerful experience for me to see (students) capture their heart and hear it come out of their mouths,” Shannell said.