Mailan Nguyen
Circulation Editor
Mira Costa junior, Annaliese Arentsen, goes above and beyond by choosing to spend her free time giving back to the community and helping others. She does this through the National Charity League, which she has been apart of for nearly 4 years.
“I first started [participating in community service] in the third grade because my mom did it a lot, along with her mom and aunt.” Arentsen said, “it’s a whole family thing that’s been going on for generations.”
NCL is a charitable non-profit organization that has mother and daughter members from around the United States. According to Arentsen, her and her mother have worked and helped with a variety of things such as providing assistance in building the Rose Parade floats, helping special needs teens with their daily lives, and taking care of dogs with disabilities.
“I remember for the first Sunday of every month, me and my whole family would go down to downtown Los Angeles around Skid Row and deliver lunches to the homeless,” Arentsen said. “I loved seeing how happy and thankful they were for it.”
Arentsen has won about fifteen awards during her time in the National Charity League. She had received them for her various contributions to the community, being a modelette figure of the NCL and putting in the most hours of her group in the league.
“Winning these awards makes me feel good and confident that what i’m doing is the right thing, especially knowing how much of an impact it has made,” Arentsen said. “I just love doing charity work and giving back to the community.”
Arentsen shows her dedication to helping others by consistently putting in an average of three hours of service every week during the year to get a total of 140 to 150 hours out of the year. Currently, she has a total of 60 hours since April.
“By volunteering, you get to see how truly lucky you are in life while making awesome connections,” Arentsen said. “In the future I just know I want to do something that helps people.”
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