By Austin Williams
Over 40 local businesses and organizations were present for the first Centralia Youth Commission Opportunity Fair on Saturday at Castle Ridge.
Harmony Barnes, a high school senior working at the fair, said the goal of the event was to bring more attention to the opportunities that exist in Centralia.
“We organized it and put it together… because that’s basically what the youth commission is about, just giving back to the community,” Barnes said. “We really wanted to put on an event to show everybody what we have here, because I know a lot of people think we don’t have much, but we’re trying to pull people back in to see what we have and get more involved in the community.”
Visitors to the fair had the chance to meet representatives from each organization and learn about job opportunities, civic organizations, community resources, youth programs and other opportunities. Attendees were also entered into drawings for door prizes and able to purchase lunch items from Castle Ridge.
Greg Sutton of Castle Ridge said it was a pleasure to work with the Centralia Youth Commission to host the Opportunity Fair.
“When we heard about it, we thought it was a great event and said to them, sure, we’d love to partner with you and be a host site for the event,” Sutton said. “This is a wonderful event for the community. It shows all the different services that are available to them… A lot of times, people don’t even know. They may be right across the street and don’t know what’s available to them, so this is an opportunity that the Youth Commission has made available to the folks who live here.”
Commission advisor Gayla Harting said she was pleasantly surprised that the event provided a networking opportunity not only for visitors but also for the organizations.
“All the resources within Centralia being in one place, they’re finding out about each other and finding out how they can work together,” Harting said. “While we really wanted to show off Centralia and what we have to offer, networking being a part of it, I didn’t realize how big of a part of it that was going to be.”
Harting said that the event was well-attended, and the Centralia Youth Commission will look to host the Opportunity Fair again in the future.
