All of the vendors showed up on a chilly morning Nov. 30 for what turned out to be a pretty good day for finding out about disaster preparedness.
They included AmeriCorp Alert, S.B. Cert, Kern County Fire Department, PG&E, Emergency Medical Services, Allstate Insurance, Community Action Partnership, The Salvation Army, F.E.M.A., Bakotopia.com, MAIZE, and the Greater Bakersfield Legal Assistance Inc.
Paola Soto an AmeriCorp member, 21, majoring in human services, said, “It was very informative and awesome to see all the different organizations come together and teach the students about disaster preparedness.”
Many BC students interviewed said they were really impressed by the PG&E demonstration showing the do’s and don’ts in dealing with electricity.
Jessica Lang, 20, psychology major, thought the PG&E presentation was interesting and went on to say that “a disaster could happen at anytime, anywhere, and so there is a need for disaster preparedness.”
Juan Zabala, 19, undecided, thought the PG&E presentation was good to learn about electricity. Electricity and its uses are often taken for granted he felt.
Bob Miller of Allstate Insurance attends lots of these types of rallies when invited.
He knows a lot of the other vendors, and even though he has been involved in insurance, he does not always get to see what is available in the community as far as resources go.
Miller has been with Allstate seven years and recommends to BC students who are just starting out to get renters’ insurance.
Deborah Meza, facilitating coordinator for Community Action Partnership, said that AmeriCorp got in touch with her and invited her to the rally.
She went on to say that this was one of the better rallies that she has been to, and that the students are more educated. She added, “Yes, I’ll come back.”
Enrique Martinez, president of the Mecha Club, was present with information on earthquakes and floods.
He said that it was their first disaster rally, and they were grateful to be able to inform people that the possibility of an earthquake and or a flood.
According to Isabel Castaneda, program overseer, or the “go-to person if you needed anything,” said, “Overall, the rally went well; there was a lot of support from the community with all of the vendors coming out and representing. The students that did come out benefited from the information that the vendors had to offer.
“Being this is the first rally, we did have a good student turn out, with the hope to make this an annual event. We wanted students to get info on being prepared and fill out medical contact cards and hope that students will get prepared at home.”