CRISSY PASCUAL / Union-Tribune
Natalie Concors (left) and her mother, Suzie Concors, volunteer at the library as part of their participation in the National Charity League.
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CARLSBAD – There's one photograph Natalie Concors will probably take with her to college next year.
In it, Natalie and her mother hold huge trash bags up in the air, flexing their muscles after a morning of collecting litter around the Buena Vista Lagoon between Carlsbad and Oceanside.
Natalie, 17, and her mother, Suzie Concors, are among about 200 mothers and daughters who work together around North County volunteering thousands of hours each year through the Surf Cities chapter of the National Charity League.
Over the past year, the chapter, which includes seventh-through 12th-grade girls and their moms, logged 7,233 hours of good works.
The chapter, one of seven in the county, formed three years ago and is recognizing its first graduating class in a ceremony Saturday at the Torrey Pines Hilton. Most chapter's members live in Carlsbad.
The moms call themselves “patronesses” and their daughters, “ticktockers.
Natalie, who logged nearly 190 hours, is being honored for the most philanthropy hours in the chapter's senior class.
But the girls don't talk about hours so much as what they've done with their moms.
“It was nice to have something planned to do with her,” Natalie said.
The North County girls have sorted clothes at the Community Resource Center thrift store, given out bakery goods to needy folks at the center's bread room, made dinner at a shelter for battered women and visited with senior citizens in a retirement home.
“You can pick from a variety of things you'd like to do,” said Robyn Fallon, 18, president of the chapter's senior class.
Robyn has spent several summers helping at the Carlsbad City Library, listening to children tell about the books they read and awarding them prizes through the library's summer reading program.
But at the top of her list is packing holiday gift baskets with food, clothes and toys for needy families.
“You know it means they'll have a better holiday,” Robyn said.
“This is a good thing for us to do together,” said her mother, Lori Fallon, an adviser for the chapter's senior class.
Emily Melzer, 18, and her friend Shanti Deland, 18, whose mother died shortly after the chapter formed, teamed up with Emily's mom, Daryn Melzer. They did community projects including volunteering for the Rancho Coastal Humane Society, raising awareness for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, making flag pins for Operation Homefront and packing birthday boxes for senior citizens in the Meals on Wheels program.
“There's so much to do, you want to keep doing it,” Emily said.
“Rather than dropping our daughters off at activities, we can work side by side with them,” said Daryn Melzer, an adviser for the chapter's senior class.
For Ariel Kessler, 18, her favorite is one-on-one volunteer work where she can see the results.
She has given out bread at the Community Resource Center in Encinitas.
“It hit me when kids my age came in to pick up bread for their family,” Ariel said.
“It made me thankful for what I have and made me want to give back.”
Ariel and her mom, Susan Kessler, painted pictures with children who have disabilities at the Ivey Ranch day care center in Oceanside and played bingo with senior citizens at Sunrise assisted living community in La Costa.
“It's a tie we'll have before going to college,” Ariel said.
