By Tiana Woolridge
A dinner and silent auction will be held at the JJ Grand Hotel in Korea Town tomorrow to raise awareness and funds for REDesign Los Angeles, a non-profit organization working to redesign government facilities or facilities of other non-profits, to make them more comfortable and practical.
REDesign, which was created in 2007, is managed by Heidi Chung â10 and Grace Park â09 along with Matthew Kim, a junior at Windward School.
Once Chung, Park and Kim research and choose a non-profit in need, select a room and create a design for that room, the construction company TCG carries out the physical work to make their plan a reality.
“We are a newly created organization and the construction company was generous enough to do [the construction work] for free,” Chung said, “but what we need to do now is actually have money in the organization so that we can help other people with what we raise.”
REDesign has already redone the flooring and walls of two dental rooms at Los Angeles Christian Health Centers, and is supplying their waiting room with a new air-conditioner and chairs.
The organization is also working with Kollaboration, a non-profit organization focused on empowering Asian Americans through entertainment.
Future plans include donating new furniture to Asian Pacific Counseling and Treatment Center and speaking with the Olympic office to see what they need.
Chung, the vice president of the organization, and Park, the president, have known each other for years. When a family friend of Park mentioned a community service opportunity, she shared it with Chung and they began formulate ideas of what projects they could do themselves.
They are no strangers to helping communities at home and around the world. Chung worked with Habitat for Humanity to build houses in New Orleans and volunteered at an orphanage in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
Park repainted a school in Costa Rica and volunteered to work with children through Para Los Niños, Mar Vista Head Start and the same orphanage in Mexico.
However, when their first project with the Los Angeles Christian Health Centers (previously known as the Los Angeles Mission Community Clinic) involved more construction than medical work, they realized their passion for designing through community service.
This gave them the idea to change the focus of their organization, and also a name; by boldening and capitalizing “red” in the word redesign, they emphasize the design aspect of the organization.
