WINNERS OF THE WEDDING CONTEST!!!

First I want to thank and commend all of the applicants for their selfless giving and worthy causes! I was so impressed to see so many couples giving their lives to better our world!

After a long and difficult decision process, I have decided on a winner for my wedding photography give-away contest. I am proud to announce my winners Teresa Ornelas & Juvel Flores!

Congratulations Teresa & Juvel! On behalf of Mike Colón Photographers, Leather Craftsmen, and Pictage Inc., This deserving couple will receive the following gifts for their wedding:

An Engagement Session and Full Wedding Day Coverage by Mike Colón

A Leather Craftsmen Custom Designed 8500 series Album

Pictage Online Proofing, Bound Proof Books, Large Canvas Print, & $500 in reprints!

This couple's story really moved and inspired me! I want to share their story with you. Please read their application below:

Non-profit organization and contact information

We work for Mika Community Development Corporation (CDC), a non-profit organization located in West-side Costa Mesa that exists to identify and equip leaders in low-income neighborhoods to build communities with VISON.

Our office number is 949.645.0075, and you can contact our Executive Director, Crissy Brooks at 949-400-3095. You can also find more information about MIKA at www.mikacdc.org.

Why we work for MIKA and what it means to us

Teresa:

I work at MIKA part-time and I am a full-time student at Orange Coast College. I currently work at MIKA as the Youth Development Assistant and as a part-time Volunteer Coordinator. Some of my responsibilities are to assist my supervisors in administrative tasks that have to do with volunteer and youth development, which includes creating program applications, credit cards expense trackers, and other various documents that make their jobs easier.

I work for this organization because I want to help people appreciate and help their neighbors and take ownership of their community by walking with them and helping them find the resources they need in order to achieve the goals they have for their community.

I grew up in MIKA’s first neighborhood, Shalimar, and I see Mika as a huge help to families in west-side Costa Mesa. Before MIKA, many of us had few options as to what we could do after school. As I was growing up, many of the older youth, and even some of my friends, were involved in gangs and many other self-destructive behaviors. Shalimar, the neighborhood I grew up in, had a horrible reputation. I was ashamed of telling people were I lived because I hated the comments they would make after I mentioned it. I was lucky I loved school and learning, otherwise I could have ended in jail or doing drugs, or even pregnant, like many of the girls I hung out with.

I attended Express Yourself (EXY), a MIKA youth arts program when I was high school. I have never had any artistic talent, but attending EXY was far better than staying at home by myself or watching adults sell drugs to younger kids and much better than being outside watching the street drunks glaring at us in ways that were not appropriate.

Even though MIKA was not as diverse in its programs as it is now; MIKA gave me and many other youth options –activities we could do instead of getting in trouble

Juval:

I also grew up in the Shalimar neighborhood and I currently work as a Neighborhood Advisor at MIKA’s Center St. neighborhood. Some of my responsibilities are to help the neighbors organize neighborhood events that benefit the community by bringing them together. I also conduct home-visits with neighbors to connect neighbors with one another and give them an opportunity to share their concerns.

I am working for this organization because I believe that the opportunity was something God had planned for me. Before Mika, I had been working at a retail auto parts store for two years. I felt the hunger for something better, something with a purpose, something that held real value in my heart. I wanted something more than selling wipers or break pads for cars.

One day after a very frustrating and tiresome day at my former job, I drove home with a sense of happiness on my face, praying for something else. When I arrived I was preparing to do an oil change on my car when Crissy called me. She had a job offer for me; there was no arguing the fact that this job was planned for me. The first year, I still worked full time for the auto parts store and part time for Mika, because I was paid through Ameri-Corps and my pay averaged out to about five dollars an hour and I still had to find away to pay for my bills.

My second year at Mika I was able to leave the auto parts store and work full-time with an organization that shares the same passion that I do – helping people help themselves in a way that is good in Gods eyes. The work that we do means a lot to me because it shows that there are people in the world that will dedicate their lives to walk with others through the example that God has set for us.

We were youth that were helped by MIKA and we are blessed to be able to work at MIKA and give back to our community. We believe we have great things to offer not only to MIKA but to our community because we grew up in it and because we care about our community. We want to set an example to other youth and adults that there really are other options to improve our community and that it is possible to attain good things by walking with our neighbors.

Why wedding photography is important to us

Wedding photography is extremely important to us. We love taking pictures, especially of moments we care about because they make us relive the wonderful feelings we had during those events – the problem is that we are rarely in those pictures.

We both tend to shy away from the camera and we would like to be the ones taking pictures at our wedding, but by having our wedding photographed by a professional, we do not have to worry about it being done well. We know that wedding photography is expensive and our other option was to ask friends to take pictures, but they will not be as beautiful as a professional photographer’s would be.

CONGRATULATIONS TERESA & JUVEL! I WILL BE IN TOUCH EARLY NEXT WEEK!