Savvy Teens : Volunteers: A group of low-income students from Century High School is given the Spirit of Volunteerism Award in recognition of its members’ efforts in helping others.

It was Trang Le’s first visit to a nursing home, and the 17-year-old was a bit nervous as she clutched the yellow balloons she carried as gifts of cheer for the residents.

Le entered a room and saw a woman lying in bed who couldn’t speak, but whose eyes lit up at the sight of the high school junior. Le took the frail woman’s hand and smiled before tying the balloons to the bed frame.

Although she remained cheerful throughout the visit, Le couldn’t hold back her tears afterward.

“People here need friends because they are so lonely,” Le said. “I want to do something for them. I want to come back here every day to talk to them and give them presents.”

Le was among 20 students who visited the nursing home, a monthly practice for members of Santa Ana Volunteer Youth (Savvy), a group of mostly low-income students from Century High School. The group received the Spirit of Volunteerism Award on Friday for being the outstanding youth group from the Volunteer Center of Greater Orange County.

“A lot of kids become emotional during their first visit,” said Shirley Bebereia, an instructor of English as a second language at Century High who founded the club in 1982.

“I see a lot of emotion from many of the Asian students at first because many of them have seen a lot of death,” Bebereia said. “I think when they left their native countries to come to the United States, they felt as though they had escaped death. When they see people here, they see that death is inevitable.”

Tough lessons like this come often for the members of Savvy, a group of 175 students who work tirelessly throughout the year to aid the families of poverty-stricken classmates and others in the community who need a helping hand.

“They’re seeing what’s real, not what’s in a book,” said Bebereia, Orange County’s Teacher of the Year in 1989. “If we can reach them when they’re young like this, they can make a difference.”

Savvy’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. In addition to Friday’s award, the group was selected from among 800 candidates as the outstanding youth service group at the Disneyland Community Services Awards earlier this year.

Bebereia, 49, said she formed Savvy while teaching at Valley High School to help keep kids out of gangs and to get low-income students to look past their own poverty to help others.

“Our area is one of the most economically distressed areas in Orange County, so most of these students are poor themselves,” Bebereia said. “Being involved in this group makes them realize that they can contribute something to society and makes them more aware of other people’s needs and problems, not just their own.”

Sophomore Eduardo Santana joined Savvy in the fall and said it’s not like any other group to which he has belonged.

“I really like this club because we help people and we get to meet a lot of people,” Santana said.

“It makes me feel like I’m helping others and making them happier,” added sophomore Maria Laura Garcia. “This makes me feel good inside.”

Savvy makes its biggest contributions during the holiday season when group members “adopt” dozens of the families of fellow classmates and provide them with Thanksgiving meals, presents, Christmas trees and other treats.

“Our biggest contribution is that we respond locally, right here, to families that have faces and names,” Bebereia said.

Bebereia said the group has not only instilled the spirit of community service in many of its members, it has also helped to keep hundreds of kids out of gangs by giving them a sense of belonging.

“Most of the time, in our area, so many of the kids are involved in gang activity, and a lot of that comes from a need to belong to a group that accepts them and makes them feel important,” Bebereia said. “With Savvy, they have something to belong to that’s positive and gives them an alternative. A lot of times, they chose gangs because there were no alternatives.”

Bebereia said she tries to reach kids like the young Latino gang member who once threatened her when she touched him on the shoulder during class. Determined to set him straight, she paid a visit to the teen-ager’s parents, who lived in the Minnie Street corridor, one of Santa Ana’s poorest and most crime-ridden neighborhoods.

This particular show of concern sparked a change in the troubled youth, Bebereia said. His behavior began to improve in class and homework assignments started to arrive with more frequency. Eventually, he became an active member of Savvy.

“I’ve seen a change in so many kids,” Bebereia said. “I see it in their eyes, in the way they walk and how they hold their heads a little higher. They see that they are something of value to someone else.”