FOR A GOOD CAUSE:Taking time to create lasting memories

National Charity League member Elise Molnar left 6-year-old Sophia Urquilla with an ear-to-ear smile and a book full of memories Saturday afternoon, when a dozen 10th-graders from the league’s Newport Chapter hosted 20 Shalimar Learning Center students for a day of scrapbooking.

Elise, a sophomore at Corona del Mar High School, also left beaming. In her third year with the mother-daughter nonprofit that donated about $85,000 and 12,000 hours to 25 local charities last year, she enjoys the opportunity to work with children and to spend quality time with her mother.

“It’s especially fun to work with these kids who, even though they aren’t as privileged as the girls in National Charity League, are always smiling and having so much fun,” she said. “I almost think it’s horrible we get community service hours for it.”

The group spent the afternoon in a room above the local chapter’s Ticktocker Thrift Shop cutting, gluing and decorating pages in their personalized scrapbooks.

For Sophia, the best part was using the “really cool scissors” and embellishing the cover with her name written in sparkling silver glitter.

The volunteers “are really nice because they help me,” she said. “I am going to show my scrapbook to my whole family — my mom, my brother, my sister, my grandma and my grandpa.”

Focusing their efforts this year on Shalimar — which offers an after-school tutoring program to about 120 first- through sixth-graders — the 10th-grade volunteers will also hold off-site art and cooking classes for some of the center’s students, hoping to expose them to extracurricular activities they may not have the opportunity to enjoy otherwise.

“The Charity League’s work is tremendously beneficial to us,” Shalimar Learning Center coordinator Bobby Murillo said. “The kids get so involved in doing something that’s not part of their normal routine, and it ends up raising their expectations as far as what they can do and accomplish, and they are learning something new at the same time.”

Giving their time to a variety of local charities and organizations — including the Environmental Nature Center, the J.F. Shea Therapeutic Riding Center and the Orangewood Children’s Foundation — the 175 seventh- to 12th-grade daughters of the National Charity League’s Newport Chapter are also learning an important lesson in philanthropy, chapter President Cindy Stokke said.

“The primary goal of the organization is really to instill the spirit of volunteerism and giving back in our daughters,” she said. “At the end of the day, you feel really good about yourself and the fact that you give back to your community in a positive way.”

The chapter is accepting applications for several need-based scholarships, up to $2,000, available to female high school seniors at Corona del Mar, Newport Harbor, Costa Mesa, Estancia, and Back Bay and Monte Vista high schools. Information is available in the counselor’s office at each school, and the applications are due April 18.

Locals can help the National Charity League’s Newport Chapter by buying secondhand goods at the Ticktocker Thrift Shop, open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday at 540 W. 19th St., Costa Mesa.