Talon Marks Online News

On April 26th the Re-Entry Resource Program will be hosting the 4th annual Community Resource Fair.

The event will be hosted at the Cerritos College Library Sidewalk from 10:00 a.m. -1:00 p.m.

Re-Entry Resource Specialist Shannon Estrada talks about the fair, “Overall they’ve gone really well, we usually range between 25-35 agencies that come out every year, so it’s been pretty successful we’ve had some good comments from students too,” she said.

Estrada says the reason behind hosting the fair is in large part due to trying to help people during these struggling economic times.

She continued, “A lot of times people don’t know what’s out there for them.

“So you know we try and bring in just a variety of community resources, whether it’s health care or legal aid or you know things that we would think they would look for.”

According to Estrada the agencies at the fair will be answering questions, letting people know how they can help them and what they do.

“A lot of our students don’t know what’s out there, they don’t know we have a success center or you know they don’t know that there are scholarships, so we try and just bring some of the programs out to let students know how they can help them,” Estrada said.

Estrada says the event is totally free of any cost and will be funded through donations she asks for from places outside of campus.

A drawing or raffle also takes place as Estrada stated, “We’re able to do like a drawing for students because I ask for donations from restaurants.”

Knotts Berry Farm is donating four tickets that will also be raffled away as mentioned by Estrada.

The event is a community event as made clear by Estrada, “I just went out today and put fliers out in like the local social service offices, the E.D.D office, we invite the community as well because we want people to come and just see what’s available to them that they may not know about.”

“I think that’s pretty cool because people who aren’t around here they can basically get all the benefits of students that do go here,” undecided major Daniel Gomez said.

Gomez also said that he thinks students should attend the event and see what opportunities they can benefit from.

Arts and design major Edwin Espinola stated, “I think it’s great that people are trying to raise awareness for the disabled.”

He also said that students can benefit from attending the event and learn about the struggles that people endure on a daily basis as well as maybe getting lucky and winning tickets to Knotts Berry Farm.

Architecture major Raul Ortiz shared his thoughts on the fair, “It’s actually good, not only will students benefit but many people like kids,” he said.

Ortiz said he believes events like this are extremely beneficial to many people and should be kept around.

According to Ortiz many students have needs for the resources that are to be provided at the fair “Many students need health care, many students right here at Cerritos are actually parents and their kids need child care.”