The Newport Beach-based Orange County Automobile Dealers Association awarded $66,000 in scholarships to high school students who participated in this year’s Automotive Technology Compe-tition, held at Kia Motors America’s Irvine headquarters.
California New Car Dealers Associa-tion, Ohio Technical College and Univer-sal Technical Institute also helped fund scholarships. The money funds scholarships to OTC, UTC and other schools and communities colleges offering an automotive-tech education.
Orange County high schools and regional occupational programs, or trade schools, annually compete in a hands-on auto fix-it competition, sponsored by the local dealers association. During the two-hour competition, high school teams debug and repair vehicles, and the competition also includes a 100-question written exam.
The student team from Loara High School’s regional occupational program in Anaheim won the competition this year and will represent Orange County at the national competition in New York in April.
Toyota of Orange sponsored the winning team, seniors Steven Brown and Erick Parades, and their instructor John Kasabian.
Kia Motors America donated a Kia Optima sedan to the Loara High School team. The students will use the car to train for the national competition.
Five teams participated in the contest, representing Mission Viejo High School, North Orange County Regional Occu-pational Program in Anaheim, Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton, Buena Park High School and San Clemente High School.
Other local dealers who sponsored the teams with practice cars: Penske Toyota Scion of Rancho Santa Margarita, Toyota of Huntington Beach, Don-A-Vee Chry-sler Jeep in Placentia, Allen Hyundai in Laguna Niguel and Simpson Buick GMC in Buena Park.
The goal of the competition is to recognize students’ technical expertise and introduce them to careers in automotive technology.
The Orange County Automobile Asso-ciation also hopes to increase the development of automotive trade programs in Orange County (see story, page 11).
Laguna Beach residents Peter and Kathy Halper have donated $10,000 to the Laguna Beach Community Foundation to help fund the organization’s operations.
The Laguna Beach Community Foun-dation pools the assets of charitable donors and connects donors to nonprofits. It helps philanthropists make grants to organizations through donor-advised funds.
Tustin-based Orange County Rescue Mission’s career center, the Sunwest Bank Success Center, will recognize 15 students who have successfully completed the Rescue Mission’s job readiness workshop.
Tustin-based Sunwest Bank’s charitable foundation and Coto Community for Hope funded the Sunwest Bank Success Center.
Coto Community for Hope, established in 2004 by Coto de Caza residents, helps support the Rescue Mission’s Village of Hope transitional living center in Tustin through event fundraising.
The job readiness workshop is a new program at the Success Center, which provides formerly homeless residents of the Orange County Rescue Mission’s Village of Hope tools and skills to find jobs. Students learn how to find a job and how to communicate their skills to employers.
The Success Center’s other services to the homeless include academic and career counseling and testing, General Educational Development test preparation, vocational training and ongoing job support.
Dean Koontz, a Newport Beach resident and prolific author of horror books, will speak April 2 at a benefit for the Laguna Playhouse, a nonprofit theater.
Author Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, co-host of the KUCI 88.9 FM Writers on Writing radio show, will moderate the evening. Laguna Culinary Arts will supply hors d’oeuvres.
Tickets to the event are $50 per person. The Laguna Playhouse puts on shows for 100,000 theater goers annually.
Tustin-based Raj Manufacturing Inc.’s Next Swimwear launched a national awareness effort for the Cystic Fibrosis Foun-dation’s Pipeline to a Cure, a surf-themed fundraiser.
Surfing can be therapeutic for people with cystic fibrosis.
The ocean air helps loosen up mucus that builds up in the lungs of those who battle the life-shortening genetic disease, which affects 30,000 children and adults in the U.S.
A percentage of Next sales will be donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Orange County chapter in Anaheim throughout the 2012 summer season. Next hang- tags and marketing materials will promote how ocean activities such as surfing and stand-up paddling help cystic fibrosis patients.
Next Swimwear and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation will also host Next National SUP Day on June 10.
Events for the inaugural stand-up paddling day will be held in Newport Beach, New York, Chicago, Minneapolis and Orlando.
At each event, stand-up paddlers will hold free clinics for children afflicted with cystic fibrosis as well as for the general public.
