The Latin X Wellness Fair was held on Oct. 14 for the Latino community surrounding CRC to help educate them about health resources.

The fair was put together by the Mes de Latin X committee and the Puente Club to help educate the community about resources that are available to them.

“It’s for the whole community, but we did focus on the Latinos and Chicano communities to come out and get educated and become aware of healthy living and the resources that are available to them,” said CRC counselor Chris Torres.

There were a variety of vendors there to lend out their services. Walmart gave  out flu shots, a chiropractor worked on people and counseling services were offered. The Puente Club, the Thrive on Plants Club and many other vendors lent out their services and educated students. The vendors were there to do their part, but people weren’t there to take advantage of them.

“The vendors were here, but we didn’t get the crowd that we thought we would have,” Torres said.

Student attendees also noticed the lack of a crowd at the event.

“I was expecting a bigger turnout, but I don’t think the word spread as much,” said Julia Luna, an 18-year-old biology major.

Even though there there was less of a crowd than was expected, the atmosphere was still great. There were kids getting in the jump house, Torres was doing a raffle and giving out prizes.

“It’s a community event with family friendly stuff, so we have the jumper, the raffle and giveaways for the kids and it’s just to let our community know we care about them,” said Torres.

“It’s something we should do more often to educate our community on health care,” said Graciela Castaneda, a 19-year-old sociology major. “There are a lot of services that people are not aware of that could be beneficial to us and our families.”

The vendors seemed happy to be there and said whenever CRC decides to have another wellness fair that they will attend again because it’s a good way to spread information.

“It brings all these health professionals together all at once and people can go from one stand to another and get some ideas on how to improve their health and it’s really bringing the health to the customer instead of the customer seeking it out,” said Walmart Pharmacy Manager Robert Engmark.

Health students were there talking to people and doing some hands on work such as giving flu shots.

“I got to talk to people about what’s important about vaccines and some people come to us saying that flu shots aren’t important, but they are very very important,” said California Northstate University College of Pharmacy Student Intern Chiderah Ugbaja.

Torres said that they were happy the collaboration with the campus was able to happen. He, along with the Puente Club and the head of the Mes de Latin X committee Juana Esty, were able to come together and put together something positive. They will be back and do a better job of getting the word out and bringing in more people.

“We’re going to go back to the drawing board and debrief on how we can improve for next year,” Torres said.