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2007
Student Voice, VC News Project
VCNews.net
Volunteer aids other women’s independence
Author: Abraham Ruelas
Issue: March 2007
Ventura College marked International Women’s
Day March 8 on the lawn of the Learning Resource
Center, as part of Women’s History Month activities
at the college. Angela Kirwin, a Ventura College
women’s re-entry student, represented the Kirwin
International Relief Foundation, a nonprofit
organization she co-founded with her husband,
Mark Kirwin.
KIRF helps “impoverished women gain
economic self-sufficiency through micro-loans in
India and entrepreneurial projects in Thailand and
Tanzania," Kirwin said.
Kirwin will give a lecture at 11:30 a.m. March 21
in Guthrie Hall about her experiences trying to
help the people of those countries.
At the International Women’s Day event, Kirwin
was selling baked goods and handicrafts to raise
money for the foundation’s work, and said that 100 percent of the proceeds help emancipate the women of India, Thailand and Tanzania. Emancipation is “not for the women here, but for the women in other countries who are forced to be dependent on men,” she said.
KIRF also has helped with the healthcare needs of 471 orphaned children in Thailand whose mothers have died of AIDS, the KIRF Web site said.
“I love her foundation and what she does,” said Jillian Bossoletti, 21, a Ventura College student and representative of the Anthropology Club. "I didn't know how many orphan kids there are in Thailand," Bossoletti said.
Flipping through Kirwin's photo book on the display table, VC student Kristina Vega, 20, said, "I saw pictures of kids looking for help.
“I bought a passport holder and a brownie,” Vega said.
"The passport holder was made by a woman who is HIV positive," Kirwin said. “But the brownies were made by me.”
“Seriously, the brownies are seriously good,” VC student Kevin Garvey, 19, said.
“I have raised over $500 selling baked goods,” Kirwin said.
"I wish she was selling more stuff so I can contribute more,” Vega said.
As VC student Michael Wuergfer, 21, paused over a picture of a hut, he said, "Looking at the pictures like that one, it makes me appreciate what we have.”
“They don't know any different,” Wuergfer said.
KIRF wants to make a difference.
2006
Citations - Ventura County Bar Association
VCBA.org
Extraordinary People Among Us
Author: Loye M. Barton
Issue: February 2006
Section: President's Message
I believe that attorneys as a group are at the top of the list when it comes to being philanthropic, dedicated to community service and responsive to the needs of others. Sometimes an extraordinary event results in the emergence of an extraordinary person.
On December 26, 2004, attorney P. Mark Kirwin, his wife Angela and their two children were in Thailand. They were scheduled to stay at the Andaman Sea Resort on the coast , but changed their plans and stayed inland nearer the mountains. The Andaman Sea Resoirt was washed away the tsunami. The Kirwin family survived when they surely would have perished but for a change of plans.
There are many paths that Mark and his family could have followed that day. Imagine being in the midst of a devastation that for most of us was images on the news. The devastation of the tsunami led the Kirwins to a remarkable new venture.
During the week that the Kirwins were stranded in Thailand, Mark first used all his cash resources to buy food and water to distribute to the hungry and thirsty. Mark and Angela worked in shifts helping the victims by delivering aid or helping in the hospiral while also caring for their own children and trying to protect them from the despair that followed the disaster….[Complete article will be posted at this web site soon.].
2005
VC LIfe & Style Magazine
VenturaLifeandStyle.com
Raising Mississippi
Author: Amy Jones and Angela Kirwin with Tim Burdick, photographer
Issue: Winter 2005/2006
Section: Feature, p.18
We follow up on the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi and Angela Kirwin's efforts to help those who lost everything.... [Complete article will be posted at this web site soon.]
The Pierpont Inn & Racquet Club Sidelines Newsletter
PierpontRC.com
Member Profile: Kirwin Family
Author: Editor
Issue: December 2005
Section: Member Profile
Three years ago life was normal for the Kirwin family. Mark was working as an attorney-mediator while Angela worked as a web developer at Patagonia, Inc..... [Complete article will be posted at this web site soon.]
Roots & Shoots Newsletter
RootsandShoots.org
Roots & Shoots groups dive into Hurricane Katrina efforts
Author: Elan Wang
Issue: Fall/Winter 2005
Section: p.3
After Hurricane Katrina struck the U.S. Gulf Coast in late August, Kirwin Family R&S leader Angela Kirwin of Ventura, California immediately jumped into action. While her children raised money by collecting spare change in mason jars at school, Angela organized a fundraising dinner to benefit hurricane victims. Through the organization she co-founded, Kirwin International Relief Foundation, Angela has traveled to Mississippi twice to deliver supplies and care packages to need families, working with local R&S leader Dr. Penny Wallin of Picayune and Dr. Lynne Houston of Hattiesburg. Kirwin Family R&S is now working with Earth Hawks R&S of Ojai and Great Pacific Development Center R&S of Ventura to send holiday cards to children affected by the hurricane.
Copyright, 2005, The Jane Goodall Institute
Los Angeles Daily Journal
DailyJournal.com
Lifesaving Decision Leads Lawyer to Start Foundation
Author: Kenneth Davis
Issue: June 6, 2005
Section: Extra, Industry Watch, p.2
When Ventura attorney Mark Kirwin took his family on vacation last year, he had no idea that the experience would change his life forever…. [Complete article will be posted at this web site soon.]
Ventura County Star Newspaper
VenturaCountyStar.com
Concert to help Thai victims
Author: Alicia Doyle
Date: January 14, 2005
Section: Local News and Opinion
Ventura man who survived launches tsunami effort
A local man who survived the tsunami and helped the relief effort in Thailand has returned to the states to launch a fund-raiser to assist areas devastated by the disaster that resulted in more than 150,000 deaths.
Ventura resident Mark Kirwin will return to Thailand on Jan. 30 after collecting donations at the 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday benefit at Genijitsu Dojo, 1645 Donlon St., Suite 101, Ventura. He also hopes to reap donations of hammers, saws and other nonpowered tools.
"I will take all the money raised and convert it into travelers checks and meet with people we worked with during the relief effort," said Kirwin, who established the nonprofit Kirwin International Relief Fund upon his return to the United States. "We need to get them what they need."
Kirwin, an attorney, along with his wife, Angela, and brother, Stephen, were halfway through their vacation when the 9.0 earthquake resulted in the devastating Dec. 26 tsunami.
"Everybody survived," Kirwin said. "We weren't at the beaches when the wave hit -- thank God."
Before the tsunami, Kirwin, his wife and brother spent time in Chaing Mai in the north, visiting Buddhist Wats, praying near monks and walking around a stuppa reflecting on the dharma of compassion and presence taught by Buddha. They wanted to travel to Ranong in the south on Christmas Day and made plans to catch the next boat to the islands on Dec. 26.
But then they decided to stay another day in Ranong.
"That boat that left on the 26th was not heard from again," Kirwin said. "If we had gone the next day, we would have been on the islands, Ko Phayam, on the 26th when the waves hit."
The night of the disaster, a local Thai man interrupted the television news at the restaurent where they were and plugged in his video camera, showing footage of the remains of the coastal jungle, "wiped clean like the bottom of a river bed with only a few trees here and there left standing," Kirwin recalled. "We all stood silently in shock at such devastation it was real. It was hell."
At a hospital, Angie comforted a man in a wheelchair, cut and bruised as if beaten repeatedly with a bat embedded with razor blades. His 3 1/2-month-old daughter was ripped out of his hands by the water. His other daughter was in a hospital 70 kilometers away, her condition unknown. His wife lay in the hospital room above.
"We survived," Kirwin said. "We had to help."
They spent several days helping in any way they could, comforting the afflicted and taking food and water to hospitals near Phuket and other areas. Working with the army, police and local officials, they gathered supplies and as much food as possible.
When the army became involved, they returned home.
"Now we live on, but all the suffering continues," Kirwin said. "The need is great, far greater than the American news leads us to believe."
Images of suffering and devastation still in his mind, Kirwin has already booked and paid for his end-of-the-month flight to Thailand.
Saturday's fund-raiser will feature two folk/bluegrass bands, food and beverages for a suggested donation of $20 or more.
"We'd be thankful for a dollar," Kirwin said. "That can do a lot in Thailand."
For more information or to make a donation, call Mark Kirwin at [phone number].
Copyright, 2005, Ventura County Star
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We have a choice to use the gift of our lives to make the world a better place.
– Dr. Jane Goodall |
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KIRF IS EFFICIENT
- 100% volunteer
- Grass roots: we deliver relief ourselves
- We partner with locals
- Volunteers pay their own travel to afflicted areas
- KIRF is a 501c(3) non-profit affiliated with IHC
- We help people help themselves
- Humanitarian aid and disaster relief
- Local beliefs are respected
- Sustainability and environmentalism are core values
- For kindness and compassion
- Because we have been blessed with a second chance
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