Mira Costa High School student government, clubs, and teams have combined forces to create "Costa Cares," a large-scale fundraising fair that will be held in Manhattan Beach on Sunday. Proceeds will go to L.A. wildfire relief organizations.

The family-friendly event, which will take place on the Mira Costa campus and is open to the public, will run from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Costa Cares has been growing in size all week and now involves at least 28 student groups (many of which will host more than one booth). The event will include a raffle with such items as an Amazon Echo, a JBL speaker, coolers, water bottles, gift cards, aquarium tickets, designer sunglasses, and more. There will also be opportunities to purchase pizza, baked goods, Noah's bagels. sliders from Local Kitchen, candy, and snacks. Younger kids can visit a special station where they can do rock painting, friendship bracelet making, and get their faces painted or hair braided. Additional activities include a prize wheel, a make-your-own-pencil-bag station, a beanbag toss, and a clothing sale.

"Amidst the tragic LA fires, many of us Mira Costa students who were student government members felt that we had a responsibility to use our platform and privilege to make change for those suffering around us," Stella Traylor, the commissioner of public relations for Mira Costa's ASB student government, told MB News. "As the leaders on campus, we came together and brainstormed ways that we could contribute to fire aid and came up with many different ideas: clothing drives, carwashes, GoFundMes; and finally, we decided we wanted to bring everything together and create one big fundraiser, incorporating all of our ideas, and including all groups on campus, creating Costa Cares."

Traylor added, "The goal is to host various activities centered around raising funds while providing a fun and calming atmosphere during this stressful time."

Once the idea for Costa Cares came about, the event grew quickly. 

"At the beginning of last week, a few students pitched the idea to some teachers and administrators on campus," Henry Michael, the student body vice president for ASB, told MB News. "When the idea caught on, five students distributed the outreach workload amongst themselves and began reaching out to leaders of clubs, organizations, electives, and sports teams. The administration and teachers then devised a plan to collect the information through a Google form, ultimately finalizing the idea and solidifying most of the details."

Could this be the biggest student-led fundraiser that ever took place at Costa? 

"As the scale of these fires and its impact on our community was so shocking, Costa has never really had a fundraiser of this size in recent history," said Michael. "While groups and organizations have come together in the past to put on events, there has never been - to my knowledge - an effort where they all come together to fundraise for the same goals. It's amazing to see how quickly everyone volunteered to get involved."

Traylor added that Costa Cares was almost certain to be the biggest fundraiser in her four years at the school, considering how much interest had been generated.

"We are extremely excited about the turnout, but I'm not surprised, as Mira Costa has a reputation for wanting to help others and use our valuable resources to make change," she said.