Outreach Committee

Purpose: Outreach to communities of various faiths, with the intent of working together for a noble cause, strengthen bonds of friendship, and promote an accurate understanding of Islam.

Upcoming Events

Plant a tree. Volunteer opportunity. OC Unity Now! ( powered by ICOI) will once again be joining the City of Mission Viejo at its annual Earth Day and Arbor Day celebration with a planting and cleanup effort on Saturday, April 13 from 8:00 am to 12pm. Volunteers will have an opportunity to plant trees and shrubs in Cordova Park, Mission Viejo. Participants should bring a hat, gloves and wear sunscreen. All ages welcome 🙂 we look forward to seeing you all there. Please signup using the link https://forms.gle/XpPmtCCtQ3qdpde66

Past Events

About 70 OC Unity Now! Volunteers made 120 fleece blankets for cancer patients. These blankets will be delivered to local cancer treatment centers and hospitals in Orange County. Great Job Volunteers!!!

Over 30 OCUnity Now! volunteers joined The Harvest Club in the city of Orange this morning to harvest Navel oranges and Grapefruits. The 1300 lbs of nutritious fruit harvested this morning will be distributed to those in need in OC. This was a fun and satisfying event for all!
Well done- Way to go OC Unity Harvesters!!!

About 50 OC Unity Now! volunteers met at The OC Food Bank in the spirit of MLK Day. Our volunteers were enthusiastic and even our youngest participants broke a sweat with their efforts! Katie Porter, our recently elected member of Congress was happy to see us again and thanked everyone for their service. Thank you volunteers! Your support, enthusiasm and hard work were appreciated in helping make 12,000+ boxes of food for needy seniors in OC.

OCUnity volunteers add a bit of spice to the rose parade float.

Brr! OC Unity Now! volunteers braved the early hours and near freezing temperatures on Saturday morning to help decorate the Chipotle Float for the Rose Parade. This unique float was covered in ingredients from Chipotles menu,leaves of romaine lettuce and cilantro and the skins of peppers, tomatillos and avocados. White rice, ground flour and salt was used as well as cumin, cloves, chili flakes and sunflower seeds. Great job volunteers!

Approximately 40 OCUnity Now! volunteers (powered by ICOI) joined with hundreds of other volunteers to help pack 2,000 boxes with holiday dinner food and other necessities for needy families. Our volunteers were very enthusiastic and our youngest participants were supercharged in their efforts. Also, Katie Porter our recently elected member of Congress personally thanked us for our service and invited us to her swearing in ceremony.

Over 70+ OC Unity Now volunteers joined other Basket Brigade volunteers this Sunday morning to sort, pack and deliver complete uncooked dinners to 430+ local families who otherwise wouldn’t have a Thanksgiving meal

For a third year in a row volunteers from OC Unity Now! ( ICOI’s community service & engagement group) assisted the Irvine Police Department with their Annual Open House Event. Our message of unity in the community was seen by hundreds of community members and our presence was appreciated by members of the public in addition to the IPD who thank all the volunteers for their help and support and look forward to our assistance again in the future.

OC Unity Now! hosted its second Annual Arts Contest Awards Event. The 2018 “Together we can…” Awards were presented Saturday afternoon. Thankyou to everyone who participated in inspiring, sharing and spreading the vision of unity. Entries were judged on interpretation of the theme, creativity and technique. Our congratulations go to the following winners:

Visual Arts

Adult- Iman Defrawi – Together we can flourish and grow

High- Raneem Iftekhar – Together we can pave the road to the future

Middle- Safia Ayesha – Together we can make something beautiful

Elementary- Eeshal Ali – Together we can save the planet

Literature

Adult- Naila Ahmed – Together we can bring change

Middle- Mishaal Mahmood – Together we can inspire

Iza Izz – Together we can accomplish anything

Elementary- Eeshal Ali – Together we can save the planet

Recognitions (Honorable Mention)

Fawaz Khan – Together we can give charity for a better Muslim future

Amaar Malik – Together we can change the world.

Awesome job OC Unity Now volunteers!

On Saturday morning we rolled up our sleeves, got out our green thumbs, grabbed shovels and spent the morning working hard to make our community greener. We joined with hundreds of volunteers in Mission Viejo to plant thousands of new shrubs and trees and helped create a bioswale using rocks.

Way to go OC Unity Now volunteers!!

About 60 volunteers hand tied over 100 blankets for cancer patients on Saturday afternoon. It was a fun event filled with camaraderie and friendship. 120 lives will be touched with the message of hope, inspiration & unity from this effort.

OC Unity Now! (ICOI’s community service & engagement group) spent Saturday afternoon recognizing and sharing our appreciation of our volunteers.This year, we appreciated our 150+volunteers. There were 780 total volunteer hours dedicated to OC Unity Now’s mission in 2017. Totaling a value of approx $21,520. That is truly inspiring!

Volunteers are the heart and soul of OC Unity Now! You are also the backbone of the initiative. Nothing we do would be possible without your dedication to selflessly serve the members of our community and spread the message of unity. Thank you!

32 OCUnity Now! Volunteers braved the cold early Saturday morning and ventured out to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena to join hundreds of other experienced professionals and volunteers to help decorate the Rose Parade Floats for the Paradiso Parade Float Company. We worked on the Amazon Prime float and the Singpoli float prepping, gluing and applying a variety of seeds, leaves and of course flowers to the floats. The efforts of our hard working volunteers was appreciated by the designer and staff at the float company and our presence and message of unity in the community was seen by over 5000 community members and pre-parade tour visitors.

We are so proud of our volunteers!

35 volunteers of all ages and backgrounds from (ICOI’s community service and engagement group ) OC Unity Now! ventured out early Sunday morning to participate in a very successful food boxing event hosted by the Noble Viking Charities of Orange County.

We helped package over 1,800 food boxes for disadvantaged children and families and spread our message of friendship and community unity through our presence and engagement.

OC Unity Now! (ICOI’s community service and engagement group) welcomed Cub Scouts and their families from pack 612 to ICOI. This was an opportunity to see a mosque in operation and to also learn about Muslims.

Guests had an opportunity to watch a prayer service, ask questions as they toured the mosque, and browse different items on display at the artifact table.

A big thank-you to Sheikh Jamal for agreeing to give an impromptu presentation and host a question and answer session.

Volunteers from OC Unity Now! (ICOI’s community service and engagement group) along with about 100 other individuals gathered early saturday morning at Families Forward in Irvine to help distribute about 900 Thanksgiving food baskets. The baskets were full of everything needed for a delicious dinner, including turkeys, produce, pies, and more. Some volunteers stuffed baskets whilst we were tasked with distributing them to the grateful clients.

This Thanksgiving event truly was a team effort. A huge thank you to everyone that helped out!

Volunteers from OC Unity Now! ( ICOI’s community service & engagement group) assisted the Irvine Police Department with their Annual Open House Event on Saturday afternoon. We helped with tours, dress up and photo booth, popcorn and CSI activities as well as helping pack everything away. Our presence was appreciated by members of the public in addition to the IPD who thank all the volunteers for their help and support and look forward to our assistance again in the future.

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Winter 2017: Meet Your Muslim Neighbor; Fleece Blankets for Cancer Patients

Our OC Unity Now! event this last Saturday had 120+ amazing volunteers in attendance for the Hand Tie Fleece Blanket Event at ICOI. Members of both the OC community along with ICOI volunteers worked together to make over 55 blankets and 45 cards. Thank you for touching the lives of cancer patients with faith, hope and love.

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Fall 2016: Meet Your Muslim Neighbor; Irvine Global Village Festival, Open Mosque Day

2017 Paradiso Parade Float Decorating

OC Unity Now! joined with hundreds of excited volunteers at Decorators’ Village to help Paradiso Parade Floats in prepping thousands of flowers to be affixed to this year’s Rose Parade floats. The place was buzzing with excitement, hard work and fun. The float we worked on is expected to be the tallest in this year’s parade at 42 feet high featuring a mouse holding a book, a gigantic giraffe and the U.S. Marine Corps teddy bear – all reading together. More than 60,000 chrysanthemums, along with countless carnations, roses and orchids were used. We had many thousands of people who had come to tour and watch us at work, with a number of them asking us questions and some thanking us for our service. Our team lead from the float company was eager for our team to return next year.