Aliso Viejo, Don Juan Avila middle schools combine to give appreciation, snacks to local first responders

By Lou Ponsi

Students from Aliso Viejo Middle School and Don Juan Avila Middle School were looking for a way to show appreciation for the efforts of local first responders who have kept the community safe during the coronavirus.

They decided to organize a snack drive and donate the snacks to Aliso Viejo Police Services, Fire Station 39, Fire Station 57, and Saddleback Memorial Hospital.

For two weeks in February, the ASB, PAL, and yearbook students from Aliso Viejo Middle School partnered with ASB and PAL students from Don Juan Avila Middle School and arrived at their respective schools early to collect individually wrapped snacks donated by students and families.

“The minute our community heard they were helping to support essential workers, who lived in their very own neighborhoods, they could not resist the opportunity to help,” said Sara Hosseini, assistant principal and ASB advisor at Aliso Viejo Middle School.

The students delivered the snacks to Saddleback Memorial and the Aliso Viejo Sheriff’s Station while firefighters from the two fire stations came by Aliso Viejo and Don Juan Avila middle schools to pick up the donated snacks.

“They both rocked it,” Hosseini said of the efforts of the two schools.