At a formal event on April 10, Fullerton Assisteens honored eighteen of their senior high school members who will soon be headed to college.
Assisteens, an auxiliary volunteer group of the Assistance League of Fullerton, was formed in 1964 to enable teenagers to help others while learning leadership skills.

The Assisteens auxiliary is made up of seventh through twelfth graders.  The group currently has 80 members with a waiting list of teens who want to join, and is open to male members, as well.

Assisteens earn volunteer hours working on their community service projects, and they support projects of the Assistance League of Fullerton,  including fundraising activities like Taste of the Town (coming up October 3) and the nonprofit thrift shop at 233 W. Amerige Avenue. The Assistance League credits thrift shop sales to the Assisteens for the hours they volunteer as sales clerks and donation sorters, and these funds form the budget for the Assisteens’ philanthropic activities. During the school year, they volunteer at the thrift shop on Saturdays, and in the summer, Assisteens help with many thrift shop operational tasks.

This year, eleven members earned  Bronze, Silver, and Gold National Volunteer Service Awards for their volunteer service hours. One member earned a Young Adult Gold award, recognizing 316 completed service hours.

This past year, the Assisteen’s community projects helped the Boys and Girls Club (they filled backpacks with school supplies), and they held a holiday party for children from the Boys and Girls Club, complete with Santa and wrapped gifts they shopped for from the children’s wish lists. They provided Halloween candy for the City of Fullerton for Octoboofest; they filled Hygiene baskets for Crittenton  Children and Families.
At Thanksgiving, they filled food baskets for needy families in the Fullerton School District. They collected and donated clothing for a local homeless shelter; they collected plastic (or paper) bags for the Pathways of Hope food distribution program, and made cold-weather survival kits for Pathways of Hope, specifically for homeless people.

They earned money to provide six $1,000 scholarships for six Fullerton high school  seniors; they helped at the Day of Authors  fundraiser for another auxiliary volunteer group, ALPHA (Assistance League Professional Humanitarian Auxiliary). The group made 1,600 bagged rewards for the Fullerton  Public Library’s Summer Reading Program.

Their last community event this year will be a cleanup of Laguna Lake at the end of April in partnership with OC United’s I Love Fullerton volunteer day.

To join Assisteens, contact Assisteens@alfullerton.org. For more information: http://www.assistanceleague.org/fullerton/