It was windy, cloudy and cold outside, however what was important on that day going wasn’t outside; it was inside.
The Health Fair took place Saturday, January 11 from 9:00-3:00 inside the library. The Health Fair was Juzely Duran’s senior Civitas project and it had the help of the ALL IN campaign. There were 13 student volunteers who sacrificed their weekend to help out on the weekend along with 10 different insurances who came with health plans. The fair even got attention from CBS 13.
The room filled with chatter as people conversed with each other. The air was happy, and bright light filled the room. Nothing like what most people would think how learning about health care would be like. Several people milled around the room.
“It’s pretty impressive to get all these people here on a Saturday,” said Maureen Parnell, Community Solutions Specialist for Health Net.

Representatives from each insurance companies waited at their booths to their job.
“We’re educating and enrolling people in the Affordable Care Act,” said Stacy Anderson, IFP Outreach Manager of Blue Shield.
The Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, is an act that wants to help more people in America to sign up for health insurance.
Each insurance company at the event offered a variety of different insurance plans, ranging from general health plans to dental plans. From coverage for families, or to people under the age of 30.
All of this was the accumulative hard work of senior Juzely Duran, who can personally identify with he struggles of the uninsured.
“I was at one point in my life uninsured,” said Duran.
“My mom is uninsured and I’ve seen the hardship she’s had to go through,” said Duran. “It’s hard to pay for a doctor’s visit which can be anywhere from 100-2000 dollars and also make your monthly mortgage payment. I was at one point in my life uninsured and it was really hard to not get sick because I did not want to put that extra burden on my mother’s shoulders.”
Duran’s family is not the only one suffering through this hardship. Across the country, as of 2012, over 48 million are uninsured, and about 15 percent of those are Californian.
“In this neighborhood, people probably take insurance for granted, but there are lots of people struggling by without it,” said Duran.
After the day was over, everyone cleaned up and barely left a trace of what happened.
While the fair may have ended, its contribution to the community did not.