Margarita Ortega winced as a Marian Medical Center nurse, with the expert flick of a wrist, inserted a needle containing the flu vaccine into the muscle in Ortega’s upper arm.

Marian Medical Center gave out flu shots Friday for just $15 as part of Guadalupe’s annual Children’s Festival and Family Health Faire held at LeRoy Park.

Organized and sponsored by the Guadalupe Union School District-run Family Services Center, the festival serves as an outlet for local social service agencies to reach out to Guadalupe residents and offers essential health and dental screening.

However, the festival is only one of the many ways in which the Family Services Center has touched the lives of Guadalupe residents.

“It’s pretty much our job to connect the families and the schools to the resources they need,” coordinator Alma Hernandez said. “They’ve grown to learn that we’re here for them.”

The center, unique in both its conception and execution, has served as an integral part of the Guadalupe community for 14 years.

A Healthy Start grant launched the center and kept it operating for three years.

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When the grant money ran out, the center was in danger of closing — until real estate investor Tom Tatum stepped in and donated $600,000 to keep it running until other grants and funds could be obtained.

Run by the Guadalupe Union School District, the center provides “just about anything and everything that families need to make sure that their children are successful in school,” Hernandez said.

To that end, the center has become a “one-stop shop” where local families can seek help and social services for issues ranging from mental health and behavioral problems to food shortages.

One of the center’s pet programs is its Home Instruction for Parents of Preschoolers.

The program involves educators visiting families in their homes and teaching parents how to act as their child’s “first teachers.”

Through this program and others, center employees often discover families that have other needs and they try to meet them.

“(The center) is unique in that most cities have a number of different services and families sort of have to fish through what they need, whereas here they come to one center,” Hernandez said. “We have the opportunity to build relationships with the families. We try to limit the caseloads so they can really provide as much support to the families as possible.”

On Friday, an estimated 300 people, including Ortega, swarmed LeRoy Park.

“It hurts,” Ortega said with a laugh after the shot, gently rubbing her shoulder.

Nevertheless, the Guadalupe resident was willing to brave the brief moment of pain, especially when she considered the alternative — getting one of her notoriously vicious cases of the flu.

“When I get a cold, I get it really bad, so I want to prevent it,” she said through an interpreter.

Ortega said she is no stranger to the Family Services Center.

“They helped me fill out important paper work,” she said. “When I needed food, they helped me ... (The center) is very important to me because when I first moved here I didn’t know anything about the community.”

At the other end of the faire, Guadalupe-based dental hygienist Netfali Quiroz was busy screening children for cavities and abscesses, or infections.

Approximately 35 percent of the children he screened that day had cavities, Quiroz said.

However, “as time has passed,” the number of children with untreated cavities has decreased, he added, a testament to the work of the center.

Carmen Lopez attended the festival with her 4-year-old daughter, Natalie, in tow.

Quiroz mused on the importance of the center as Quiroz prepared to poke around Natalie’s mouth.

“I think it’s really good for the community. I see a lot of (people) going there and using it a lot,” she said.

Natalie Ragus can be reached at 347-4580 or nragus@santamariatimes.com

September 20, 2008