Riverbank High School FHA-HERO members have been very active since the start of the 2014-15 school year, led by Nena Sandoval, FHA-HERO Club Advisor.
The officers attended an Officer Training session in Modesto where there were 15 schools from the region that were represented with 80 students and advisors. The Region 6 Officer team administered the meeting and officer training.
“Each regional officer met with the officers from all the schools and provided training, instructions and ideas for the officers to take back to their schools,” explained Sandoval. “The day is fun and casual yet valuable for new officers, especially the freshmen, as it gives them a chance to get connected with FHA-HERO members from other schools.
“It is also a time where the officers can bond and get to know each other outside of school and begin to develop relationships.”
In October, the annual Region 6 Fall Meeting was held at Pitman High School which was well attended by over 100 students and advisors from the region, which spans from Lodi to Madera.
The meeting is run by the Regional Officers and follows the traditional Parliamentary Procedure.
“The Regional Officers held an all-day planning meeting the day prior to practice, prepare workshops and set up,” stated Sandoval.
Local advisors met with both state and regional personnel to prepare and review events that will be part of a statewide competition later this school year.
The Culinary Arts students prepared lunch for everyone and afterward the final workshops were conducted with the closing ceremony to end the meeting.
In celebration of Food Day in late October, the FHA-HERO members provided the students and staff of Riverbank High School a free sample of a brown rice and vegetable stir fry for lunch.
“We gave out 500 samples along with Food Day recipes, a booklet on ‘Eating Healthy on a Tight Budget’ and new for this year was information in Spanish for students to take home for their parents,” expressed Sandoval. “Special emphasis this year was placed on encouraging people to go meatless one day a week and participate in ‘Meatless Monday’ as well as increasing awareness of poor working conditions of food and farm workers.”
This year Sandoval explained that the goal for Food Day was to increase knowledge and awareness among students. She would like students to take the information home so that conversations will begin about healthier eating habits.
“My students were overall very receptive to the plight of Food Day and in preparation we watched the movie Fed Up which provides a very graphic view of how the food industry, media and government has played a role in obesity and diabetes epidemic in America,” added Sandoval. “Even if one student goes home and encourages his family to make better food choices or wants to stop buying processed food, we’ve made a difference.”
Meanwhile, Operation Christmas Child began on Monday, Nov. 3 at RHS led by the FHA-HERO members and will run through later this month.
“Operation Christmas Child is an annual event sponsored by Samaritans Purse which sends shoeboxes filled with small gift items to children all over the world,” said Sandoval. “These children sometimes live in severely impoverished areas or areas where natural disaster has devastated and demolished towns and villages, leaving families with nothing. Individuals are invited to ‘pack a shoebox’ and show a child the ‘power of a simple gift’.”
Shoe boxes are currently available and there are brochures explaining how to fill the shoeboxes and with age group labels for either a boy or a girl, based on the preference of the person filling the shoebox.
Collection of the shoeboxes will begin on Monday, Nov. 17and run through Friday, Nov. 21 and the goal this year is to collect 50 shoeboxes between staff and students. On Nov. 24 the FHA-HERO club will travel to the Escalon Covenant Church, which is the local Collection Center for Operation Christmas Child, to assist in loading the boxes onto trucks so they can be delivered to kids in need.
For more information contact Nena Sandoval at Riverbank High School.
