Future leaders hear about helping

ALISO VIEJO ? Bill Sharp had two important messages to impart at the Leadership Institute for Teens on Monday.

One, a small group of people can make a significant difference.

Two, they won’t be a small group for very long.

Twice in the past year and a half, the world-famous surfer and Newport Beach resident has gone on expeditions to areas of the globe devastated by natural disasters. Both times, Sharp left with little more than an ATM card and the clothes on his back. Both times, he quickly amassed a network of support.

“I paid for it, and people paid me back,” he told an audience of more than 90 students on Monday. “It wasn’t that hard.”

After the tsunami hit Southeast Asia, Sharp assembled a group of local surfers and ventured to Sumatra to lend a hand. While there, he enlisted local doctors to help treat patients and trained the local citizens in an evacuation drill. Eight months later, Sharp and his crew trekked to New Orleans to help Hurricane Katrina victims and, despite the lack of government backing, managed to enlist services from Hertz Rental, Yamaha and the United States Navy.

“The days of just writing a check to the Red Cross are over,” Sharp said.

His speech, accompanied by a slide presentation, served as the keynote address for the Leadership Institute, held for the third straight year at Soka University in Aliso Viejo. The annual five-day event features speeches and workshops by humanitarians from around the world ? in some cases from right in Newport-Mesa’s backyard.

Two years ago, a group of community activists ? led by sports attorney and author Leigh Steinberg and his wife, Lucy ? founded the Leadership Institute to encourage youths to take a stand. This week, the conference set a new record for attendance and broke ground in another way: For the first time, a group of local high school students created the five-day schedule.

“A lot of the students who choose to participate are in student government,” Lucy Steinberg said. “They have a club or they start a club. It gives them an opportunity to meet like-minded students and improve the ideas they have for their own lives.”

Self-improvement was the main theme on Monday, the opening day of the Leadership Institute. After hearing Sharp’s presentation, students did a writing exercise in which they mused about their own impact on the world and how they would like others to remember them posthumously.

Each of the subsequent days will have its own theme. The organizers have marked today as Global Day, with a series of workshops built around serving other countries. Relief International and AmeriCorps are scheduled to lead seminars, while Nicole Sanchez, executive director of Youth Philanthropy Worldwide, will talk about connecting with nonprofit groups.

On Wednesday, the institute will move on to Local Day, with workshops on how to make a difference in the community. Weiland’s mother, Denise Weiland, will offer a training course on CPR, while Marla Miller, editor of the magazine Location 3, will speak about journalism opportunities for teenagers. Thursday is Personal Day, with a series of activities regarding communication and leadership skills, to be followed by a volunteer organizations fair on the last day.

Among the six student organizers are three from Corona del Mar High School: Zan Margolis, Brittany Ngo and Scott Sanford. Scott, 18, who graduated last June, said his generation valued community service, but only fitfully.

“I would say there are a select group of people who are really involved in leadership,” he said. “I could hand-pick about 20 people who are future presidents of the United States.”