Boys & Girls Club kids delight in receiving Valentine’s gift bags from Laguna Sound
It has been 11 months since the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus to be a pandemic, and during that timeframe, some of life’s simple pleasures such as personal relationships have faced stiff challenges.
Merry Tungka, a digital producer at Laguna Sound recording studio, recently lost her grandmother, Katherine, who she would ask what she should be when she grew up. The answer that came was to be kind and a good person.
With Valentine’s Day coming on Sunday, Tungka wanted to make a difference and bring a smile to kids’ faces, so she got some partners together to create gift bags for kids at the Boys & Girls Club of Laguna Beach.
She dropped off the gift bags on Thursday. They included heart-shaped boxes of candy donated by Target and a kid’s meal and certificate of achievement provided by Ruby’s.
“I just remember myself as a child getting Valentines, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be from a girlfriend or a boyfriend,” Tungka said. “The fact that you get these cute notes, just to remind yourself that you’re loved, and love yourself, and I think it’s just a positive message overall.”
Linnea Newquist, the member services director for the Boys & Girls Club of Laguna Beach, said the club has been open all day for its middle school and high school students. The secondary schools in the Laguna Beach Unified School District have remained in distance learning for the duration of the school year so far.
The club has also been open since August for kids of essential workers, and it is currently open as an after-school program, Newquist added. Kids have remained in pods assigned by their grade level.
Often when a cultural day comes up on the calendar, the club engages the kids in an activity that allows them to express their feelings about that day.
“We’ve been making Valentine’s Day grams with our kids,” Newquist said. “We’ve been helping them make them for their class because they’re all assigned to make them for their schools, and then we also made a Valentine’s Day gift for all of their parents, so they have the opportunity here to make a Valentine’s Day gram for their parents.”
Of course, some gifts are more precious than others, like the one Moulton Elementary first-grader McKinley Costales said she would give to her parents.
“Love,” said McKinley, before running over to give her mom, Jennifer, a big hug at the club Thursday afternoon.
The gift bags delighted the kids who received them.
“It’s candy that matters,” Ella Volpe, a sixth-grader at Thurston Middle School exclaimed.
Riley Rae Ferguson, who is in eighth grade at Thurston, also had candy on her mind when talking about what Valentine’s Day means to her, saying it’s about “giving to others, and spreading love and joy, and chocolate.”
Cinda Ferguson, 68, of Laguna Beach, who adopted Riley Rae, shared another Valentine’s Day memory from last year, when the two of them handed out her late husband’s jacket to a member of the homeless community in town.
“We filled it up with food, water, and candy, and she put a Valentine’s love heart in it,” Cinda said. “We drove around to find the perfect homeless man to give it to in downtown Laguna, and we drove around and we found one, and then we gave it to him.”
“He went through the pockets. He literally took off two or three dirty jackets, [and] he put on this jacket.”
A couple of celebrities also helped out with the Valentine’s Day effort, with Danny Trejo and Emily Tosta both sending in video messages for the Boys & Girls Club of Laguna Beach.
Trejo told the kids that they had great futures ahead of them and urged them to listen to their counselors, before thanking the club and Laguna Sound.
Tosta imitated hugs and kisses in her message.
“I want to send you guys a lot of love and a lot of blessings, and I wanted to say that you guys have a very bright future ahead of yourselves,“ Tosta said in the video. “I am sending you tons of kisses and hugs, and Happy Valentine’s Day. Don’t forget to love yourselves and trust yourselves, and work hard, persevere and keep smiling and have faith. I hope you guys have a beautiful day and hope to meet you soon.”
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