On Saturday May 17, 2008, students from Next Step-Nothing but the Truth About Drugs and IMPACT-Students Making a Difference, collected donations for the Human Options home for battered women. Donations included a variety of much needed kitchen and bathroom products from canned food and cleaning products to sunscreen and toothpaste. Approximately 150 students, representing high schools throughout Orange County donated their items to the drop off location at Hart Park in the City of Orange. At the park, donators were greeted with a barbecue lunch, games, and activities.
This is the third year the students of this organization, which is an affiliate of Drug Use Is Life Abuse and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, participated in this event. Other community events put on by IMPACT members include sponsoring an annual holiday party for children whose parents are part of the Orange County Department of Education and the court ordered Patience Project. Additionally, IMPACT students have painted and fixed up the exteriors of homes owned and occupied by someone who is physically and/or financially incapable of doing it themselves. Orange County Sheriff’s Deputies Scott Yuen and Colin Dadd, who coordinate IMPACT and Next Step drug abuse education program, actively led this year’s project.