Youth Charter “Delta High School LULAC” #3047
After the 2017-18 school year with a census of about 12 members. Delta High School's Noeli Castro and Mairany Jaracuaro approached Mrs.Chavez (an ELL Para and interpreter for DHS) asking if she could help Mr.Payan (Delta's Art teacher) in leading this ambitious group of kids. Feeling defeated after working very hard on an event they weren't even recognized at in a neighboring town (with a much larger Hispanic population), DHS LULAC wanted more. In August of 2018, Mrs.Chavez worked diligently to get our "club" affiliated with the National Organization. LULAC set up a signup table at a back to school night , and by talking about what they wanted to do; they doubled in size! Because we live in a community that has a history of not accepting diversity and different cultures and some of these students struggle with the same issues even today, we wanted to change that by promoting positivity, community service and knowledge about the different cultures in our community.
Mrs.Chavez began organizing and making arrangements to host assemblies at sister schools, our president worked on meeting with community representatives in our county and the entire club has been working tirelessly to fundraise for our big scholarship funding event! We had to divide and conquer, social media, event planning, meetings, coordinating parents and most of all unity of all these different cultures right here in their school.
Late November we partnered with Delta's Safeway to provide a holiday dinner for less fortunate families in our community. between eight of our members they earned more than $600 for those meals! They've had pizza party's with the special education students at DHS in order to build relationships with those kids. We participated in "Cesar Chavez Day", sat on informational board for DU about marijuana use and prevention and mediated a community forum about civility in the town hall with standing room only (just to name a few).
Now with a total of 63 members and counting, we are set to host the "First Annual Cinco de Mayo", which is the first event of it's kind in our small community. Our hope is to promote unity in the form of a celebration. Raise funds for scholarships in a place where the economy is depleted and to prove that these youth are unstoppable regardless of where they were born or what their first language is. We have Mexican, Navajo, Asian, Caucasian and Karen students in this club. All of them are incredible!
Su Pa Wa is a member and a Sophomore at Delta High School, she is a refugee of the Karen state in Thailand. She has an incredible faith in God, always so thankful for what she has and although she came here speaking a dialect that isn't like any other anyone from here has ever heard, she has persevered and has made lifelong friends. Noeli Castro is a Junior at Delta High School and is the President for the second year. She has had to learn leadership skills in a quick fashion! Noeli is always looking for a way to have the voices of our youth heard, whether it be community forums, meetings with the sheriff and elected officials or organizing a voting registry. She has also got our club involved in raising awareness against sexual assault and Mexican heritage day. She has a passion for her culture and is willing to do anything it takes to see our club succeed.
Here at Delta High School LULAC our motto is #sisepuede. Together I am certain they will go far!!
Heather Chavez
ESL Para, Delta High School