Poplar set for awareness event

A Community Step UP event will be held Saturday in Poplar to bring awareness to everything from health and nutrition to drug, alcohol and suicide prevention.

College awareness material will also be available, as well as food, art contests, prizes and live entertainment.

Though it is the second annual such event for Poplar, it is the first time it has been organized and will be conducted by the Pleasant View CAST “First Eight” — Desiree Salcido, Diego Vallejo, Juan Aldaco, Rafael Zamora, Alicia Bravo, Lupe Martin, Joana Reyna, Jacob Posey — who recently completed CAST, a Tulare County Office of Education program that focuses on improving school smarts, improving drug-use control and improving moods.

Among some of the participants are Trevor Project, Proteus, CSET, Family Health Care Network, Tulare County Sheriff Department, TC Gang Unit, Probation Department, Porterville College and California Highway Patrol.

The students met twice a week for an hour, learning life skills that could be applied towards their group goal.

“We then signed the students up for the Tulare County Step Up Youth Challenge,” said Gus Ramirez, advisor of the group at Pleasant View Elementary. “Its a competition where a group of students have to organize an event that focuses on the needs of their community.”

Recently, they’ve been meeting weekly in anticipation of Saturday’s event and have visited various businesses all week, posting flyers around town advertising the event, he said.

“It means a lot to me because I’m tired of when people hear of the town of Poplar, it’s always negative,” said Alicia Bravo, 14. “We want to do something that shows Poplar in a positive way. It’s also important to me because I want to make a difference.”

Ramirez, who has been at Pleasant View for eight years, said he wants to let the community know that Poplar has positive events.

“I’ve grown to love the students and the community. It is my second home,” Ramirez said. “Time after time, I’ve open the [newspaper] and all I ever read about is Poplar and all the negative going on in town. What people don’t realize is that there is a lot of positive that comes out of here. A prime example are the students who are organizing this event. We want to change our community and we’re trying to change the perception that people have of Poplar from a negative to a positive.”

The Community Step Up event is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 18900 Ave. 145 in Poplar.

Contact Esther Avila at 784-5000, Ext. 1045, or eavila@portervillerecorder.com.