Helping the well-being of others

Marisa O’Neil

Flower power has taken on a whole new meaning for a group of girls at

Mariners Christian School in Costa Mesa.

Three sixth-graders have been spending their Friday evenings

making and selling fabric flowers mounted on pins, clips and ponytail

holders -- modeled after ones in a chic store. They are donating all

the money to build wells in remote villages in India through an

organization called Wells for Life, which made a presentation at

their school.

Water is an all-too precious commodity in India, said Wells for

Life president Michael Viser, who started the organization three

years ago after going to India on a mission and seeing the difference

one well can make for villagers. Otherwise, they end up using waters

from unsanitary ponds for drinking, eating and bathing, he said.

So far, the organization has built 40 wells, each serving between

50 and 3,000 people.

“The slide show [on Wells for Life] really touched us,”

12-year-old Annie Megonigal said.

The school donated money to build three wells, but the girls said

they wanted to do even more.

“We didn’t know what little 11-year-olds could do to help people

over in India,” Nicolette Kelegian said.

Then Nicolette, Annie and 12-year-old Francesca Nestande saw $16

flower pins made from fabric in a local store and decided to make

their own. Theirs sell for $4.

They use donated fabric scraps and swatches and buttons to make

the flowers and mount them on pins, clips or ponytail holders. Each

one takes about a half hour to make.

“At first we were like: ‘Yeah, right, we can buy a well,’”

Francesca said. “Then the next day we had $200.”

Students at the school started snapping up the flowers, and after

three months, they’d raised $800 for a hand-pumped well.

“Francesca said she’d be sitting in class, and everyone would be

wearing [the flowers],” her mother, Pamela Nestande, said.

When nearly everyone at the school already had a flower, the girls

decided to branch out. Now they sell them at Teddy Bears and Teacups

on Balboa Island, and at Pink Wasabi in Crystal Cove Promenade, which

gave them Lilly Pulitzer-print fabric to use.

“These girls are so young and so knowledgeable of the fashion

industry and have the eye to put these together,” Pink Wasabi manager

Chelsea Schaeffer said.

A couple weeks ago, the girls gave “one of those huge checks” to

Viser for a well, Nicolette said.

He said the well will go where the need is greatest, most likely

in a southern state in India.

Now they’re hoping to raise the money to go on a mission and see

the well sometime next year.

“The people [in the villages] have no food and water, and we have

so much,” Francesca said.