29th Annual Wild & Crazy Taco Night
More than 700 guests enjoyed specialty tacos from 16 celebrated Orange County chefs featuring libations from CaliFino Tequila, Deschutes Brewery and New Belgium Brewing’s Fruit Smash hard seltzer. Hosted by the Share Our Selves Foundation, the event was held on Thursday, May 19, at OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa.
Once again, this foodie tradition raised over $100,000 in support of Share Our Selves social services. The comprehensive services address issues including food and housing insecurity and overall wellness of our neighbors who are low-income and experiencing homelessness.
Guests tasted curated tacos exclusively for this event with the opportunity to vote for the Yelper’s Choice Award “Fan-Favorite Taco” presented by our Premiere Sponsor, Yelp. This year’s winner was Chef Fonzy De Zuniga of Descanso. Chef Fonzy De Zuniga proved to be a fan favorite winning his second year in a row. This year serving up a creation of duck birria, habanero red pickled onions, cilantro, edible flowers and gold flakes on a cheese crusted blue corn tortilla.
We thank our generous restaurants, beverage partners, and sponsors for their generous contributions to benefit the 29th Annual Wild & Crazy Taco Night!
Click here to view photos from the event
2022 Participating Restaurants
Hector Zamora
Fonzy De Zuniga
Rich Mead
Five Crowns and SideDoor
Matt Luna
Marco Zapien
Sal Gonzalez
Greg Byma
Pascal Olhats
Ross Pangilinan & Nick Weber
Paul Buchanan
Erik Aronow
Natalie Aleksandrova
Chris Tzorin
Kenneth Williams & Andy De La Cruz
2022 SPONSORS
Habanero
The Sharon D. Lund Foundation
Pinata
Debbie Millar
DMP Properties
The Frome Family Foundation
Hoag
South Coast Plaza
Cactus
Jay Donoghue
Dr. Gwyn Parry
Laurie Dubachansky
Med Tech Solutions
Pacific Hospitalists Associates
PCV Murcor
ServiceNow – John Spriko
Thompson Family Foundation
Dr. Vik and Shama Mehta
Sombrero
Adams’ World Travel
Dr. Alberto and Jori Mendivil
Alkeme Insurance Services
AT Consulting
Bob and Anne Cress
Enterprise Bank & Trust
Fletcher and Jones Motorcars
Gary Bess Associates
Haskell Collection
Lynn and Roger Tomalas
Med Tech Solutions
Mike and Pam Howard
OneDigital
Patricia Doyle
Prestige Medical Group
Dr. Richard and Sandie Haskell
Susan and Kevin Daly
Western Community Housing, Inc.
UNDERWRITERS
Faye and Ali Azadi
Jim and Diane Bailey
Beach City Car Wash
Flor and Emma Buncab
Saundra Campbell
Randy and Jenice Carter
Ski and Kathy Harrison
Will and Annick Klatte
Jake and Andi Rohrer
Dr. Roberta Lessor & Dr. David Snow
Alice Tutunjian
2022 EVENT DONORS
Anonymous
Susan and Kevin Daly
Annie Gerard
Manning Homes
Kronick Moskovitz Tiedemann & Girard
Susan J. Markowitz
On-site Lasermedic Corp.
Linda and Kevin Pitts
Nancy Schmoldt
Nancy and Geoffrey Stack
Fall Family Service Night

Join Us for Fall Family Service Night
At Share Our Selves, we believe in the power of coming together as a community to make a difference. Our Fall Family Service Night is an opportunity for families to make a positive impact on those in need while also having the opportunity to bond with your family and instill the values of compassion and generosity in the hearts of your children.
Date: Friday, November 17, 2023
Time: 5:00-6:30 p.m.
Location: Share Our Selves Community Health Center | 1550 Superior Ave., Costa Mesa
Event Capacity Reached! Join the Waitlist
by Contacting Events Manager, Kristin Sheward at ksheward@shareourselves.org
Service Projects
At Fall Family Service Night, families like yours will join hands to help us sort, package, and prepare groceries for our upcoming Thanksgiving Food distribution to the local community. Throughout the evening, you will also have the opportunity to learn more about the vital services that Share Our Selves provides to those in need, and how your support makes a difference.
Adults and children are welcome to participate. Please note that children aged 16 or under must be accompanied by a guardian.
In the spirit of the Thanksgiving season, we kindly request pie donations to add a sweet touch to our food distribution.

SOS Celebrates Pride Month
As we celebrate Pride this month, we here at SOS wanted to take this opportunity to consider the issues and barriers facing our LGBTQ community in Orange County, and what we are doing as an organization to address them. It is our mission to provide care and assistance to those in need and act as advocates for systemic change, and we work every day to fulfill that mission for our LQBTQ community in a supportive and welcoming environment, sensitive to the struggles they face daily.
A recent study by the Center for American Progress found that 1 in 3 LGBTQ Americans, including 3 in 5 transgender Americans, experienced discrimination in just the past year. The study found that “many LGBTQ people continue to face discrimination in their personal lives, in the workplace and the public sphere, and in their access to critical health care. This experience of discrimination leads to many adverse consequences for their financial, mental, and physical well-being.”
SOS has a wide range of services available to directly attend to these issues including medical and dental care, behavioral health services, financial assistance, and homeless services. However, we know that simply having these services available is not enough. Addressing the needs of the LGBTQ community requires a team that is compassionate and well informed on the unique challenges of these individuals, and that is what we have at SOS. Our health providers are trained to care for the health conditions facing our LGBTQ patients in a sensitive and gender-affirming way. The fear of discrimination can also lead people to avoid seeking care, but at SOS everyone who walks through our doors is treated with dignity and respect, and without judgment.
The LGBTQ homeless population is particularly vulnerable, and our team of experts, as well as our community of volunteers, provides a safe space to talk, and work to find solutions so that we can help improve their living situation. Often this includes behavioral or substance abuse services, medical services for transgender individuals looking to affirm their gender, and working with other organizations to find permanent, supportive housing.
In addition to the direct services we provide every day, our leadership team also works with other community groups and organizations to advance the cause of equity in Orange County so that protections for vulnerable groups like the LGBTQ community can be enacted to promote systemic change. We also support legislation including the Equality Act that would codify those protections into law.
We have a long way to go in our society in the treatment of our LQBTQ community, but we are working every day towards the goal of equality for all. This month is a great time to recognize the progress that has been made and celebrate the freedom to choose love for everyone in our community.

SOS Mobile Health Diary – Entry 1: Building a Foundation of Trust with our Patients
The weather was sunny and mild on a recent Thursday morning as the Share Our Selves (SOS) Mobile Health Unit — a converted RV fitted out with all of the equipment of a brick and mortar medical clinic — pulled up to the Huntington Beach Navigation Center. SOS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jay W. Lee and Eligibility Supervisor Lidia Campos set up tables, chairs, and a pop-up tent, preparing to provide primary medical care to the residents of the homeless shelter.
“We’re here to be the trusted source of medical care for the homeless living in this shelter,” Dr. Lee said. “In the beginning [with homeless patients] there are a lot of questions like, ‘what are you doing here, who are you?’ and so we’re trying to build that trust so that we can grow our presence here over time.” At mobile health clinics Dr. Lee provides a medical assessment to the patients, sets up any follow-up appointments, and helps with referrals if a specialist is needed. He is usually helped out with blood pressure readings, weight checks, and data recording by a Medical Assistant and Physician’s assistant, but on this day all the tasks fell to him.
The navigation center, which operates through a partnership between the city of Huntington Beach and the nonprofit organization Mercy House, opened in December with 176 beds, although due to COVID-19 many of those beds are going unused. Residents get three meals a day plus snacks, a locker for their belongings, clean bathroom and shower facilities, and weekly meetings with a counselor to help them work towards getting permanent housing. It is one of the few shelters offering RV parking for residents, and there is also room for couples and pets.
The first patient of the day was Chris Patapoff. Chris was one of the first residents of the shelter and is grateful to be off of the streets. He is trying to get housing but is having trouble because he doesn’t have an ID card. “I can’t get my ID from the DMV without my birth certificate, but to get my birth certificate I have to go to LA and pay $40. I don’t have a car and I don’t have $40.” Additionally, due to the pandemic residents are only allowed to leave one day a week to go to appointments, shop, go to job interviews, or take care of any other business.
“I think that highlights the structural challenges that patients have when they are poor and unsheltered or homeless: things that seem routine for us, like going up to LA from Orange County, can be barriers that are impossible to overcome without significant effort and time,” said Dr. Lee. He said that the pandemic has made the situation worse. “The bottom line is that Covid has made it more complicated. Things that were already complex are more complicated now.”
Despite the impediments, Chris is optimistic about getting back on his feet and glad to have organizations like SOS delivering the services people like him need to persevere. “It went really well,” he said after his appointment. “I got a lot of information that I needed. You have all the medication that I needed. I was really impressed that you got my blood pressure, my other readings, you got all this good stuff. And you’re here every two weeks and I like that. So I’ll be back in two weeks!”
As the morning progressed, more patients received medical assessments from Dr. Lee as Lidia Campos checked on their eligibility for health insurance, food stamps, and any other programs they might be able to enroll in. Most are eligible for health coverage through Medi-Cal, although they may not know how to sign up or may be hesitant for a variety of reasons. “Some of the population doesn’t know what programs they’re eligible for, especially people who don’t have legal status. But if they have a chronic condition or urgent medical need they can always apply for it. However, they need to request it, and they need to know their rights and responsibilities for it.” Lidia is there to make sure they know what programs are available and guide them through the enrollment process, which can be daunting. She can assure them that SOS cares for everyone, regardless of their legal status.
Midway through the morning, Dr. Lee felt good about the day’s progress. Despite some technical glitches he was able to access the medical records system through wi-fi and make appropriate changes to the patients’ charts.
“We’re seeing a mix of things today,” Dr. Lee said about the patients’ health. “A lot of musculo-skeletal complaints, a lot of chronic diseases. I will say I think people sometimes underestimate just how motivated homeless people are to do the right thing for their health.”
Dr. Lee said it is often not a lack of effort that leads to poor health among the homeless, but issues they have little or no control over. “They often feel stuck because their food options are limited,” Dr. Lee said, “and I had a really good conversation earlier today with a patient that wanted to have more choice and ability to purchase healthier options. And so everyone is motivated and part of it is having that conversation and tapping into that as the way to get to behavior change.”
“It’s not that people are lazy,” that leads to chronic homelessness, Dr. Lee said. “They’re trying mightily and they’re just finding that it’s a Sisyphean task to take care of themselves.”
As the clinic continued, more residents came out to see what was happening. Some asked for appointments and seemed eager to tell their stories, some stood quietly near the periphery. “Tom” asked that we not take his photo but was happy to share his story. He lived with his father in a mobile home park until his dad passed away in 2011. After that, Tom was asked to leave because the park was for senior citizens and Tom was middle-aged.
He bounced around friends’ and relatives’ couches for a while, then lived with a girlfriend in a motel, but left when it was raided for drugs. Then he lived on the streets. He said he was told years ago by a doctor that the best way to manage his schizophrenia and delusions was restful sleep and low stress. When he lived with his dad he would practice table tennis six hours a day to keep himself calm. On the streets, he rarely slept and had to be on the alert at all times, which made it hard to keep his mental health problems under control.
For Tom, being homeless was immensely difficult. He learned that a wall with high bushes or a restroom with a lock were the best places to sleep safely. He learned many other hard lessons he didn’t want to talk about, and was happy and relieved to be living in the shelter. He’s hoping to move to permanent housing after his medical assessment from Dr. Lee.
“I was very impressed with Dr. Lee, even though he’s not related to Bruce Lee,” Tom said with a laugh.
Another clinic visitor, Jane, spoke to Lidia as the clinic was packing up. She was not looking for a medical appointment, but help navigating the Medi-Cal application process. She showed Lidia a folder full of forms, letters, and other documents, and said she was frustrated that she could not get anyone from Medi-Cal on the phone.
Lidia asked for information so that she could look up her case, but Jane became suspicious and combative. She said that she is acting as her own advocate and survived on the streets because she is tough and smart and not quick to trust just anyone. Once Lidia explained that she worked for SOS, however, Jane’s mood changed. She smiled and said she had come to us for help before and had been treated very well.
“They blessed me with food. They blessed me with a Target card when I needed underwear, and I needed it. They blessed me with clothes. They got me plugged in to domestic violence recovery. There’s love there.” Jane asked that people who hear her story or see her on the street not judge her, but pray for her. “My name is Jane. I am homeless now but I am homeward bound. I’m not my circumstances. I didn’t make a foolish decision. What I need is to work a part-time job to function in this society. And I’m going to do that.”
As Dr. Lee retracted the canopy on the RV and prepared to leave the shelter, he reflected on the day and what he has learned through his time working with the homeless. “We were busy! This was the largest number of patients we’ve seen in a half day. I think our steady presence here is paying off.” He said many of the challenges facing the homeless such as access to medical care, dental care, behavioral health services, and more will be alleviated once SOS is able to link them to our clinics, where those services are available.
“I’m just glad we’re getting a nice rhythm and cadence with folks and they’re feeling comfortable to come and see us. I think a big piece of this is being present where people need us. Ultimately what that means is being consistent, being kind, and in a way you have to be vulnerable yourself. We try to bring that level of service and kindness to the work and we’ll continue to bring that wherever we go.”
Read More28th Annual Wild and Crazy Taco Night Tickets
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Drive-thru times are assigned by 15 minute intervals between 3:00pm and 6:00pm. Tickets are per person, NOT per car. Carpooling is encouraged but each passenger who would like to participate must purchase their own ticket.
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