Local businesses in Turlock experienced an influx of foot traffic and communal support thanks to the Student Center and ASI’s Warriors Explore Downtown event this past Wednesday at Central Park where there were a variety of booths for students to visit to participate in raffles as well as other activities such as: a caricature artist, an airbrush tattoo artist, a photobooth, a live DJ, mini-games, and a raffle.

Students were encouraged to engage with the community and local businesses to learn more about what the city has to offer.

Megan Parravano, the Interim Student Center Special Projects Manager, shared that the last iteration of this event took place back in 2019. Given the reception of this year’s rendition, the Student Center and ASI are excited to continue hosting this event for years to come with intentions of expanding their communal collaborations.

Having taken about two months to plan and prepare, Parravano shared: “Our role is to bring students here to the downtown area and then the businesses are offering discounts, promotions, deals for students. Some of the ways that we entice them to come here is we do the raffle prizes. We’re giving them $10 vouchers for students.”

Parravano’s favorite part of running events such as these is getting to witness community engagement and seeing people enjoying their environment as well as participating in activities:

“It’s really about kind of a partnership with the downtown community showing that we have a vibrant student life, a vibrant community that students can enjoy here and kind of get them to be excited about Turlock and Stan State. So it’s kind of all about campus life and what we have available right here in our community,” she said.

Working in close proximity to Parravano, Delia Vidal (Liberal Studies, sophomore) is one of ASI’s Special Projects Student Center Student Coordinators who has helped coordinate and plan the event since August.

She hopes that this event will help the campus community become more comfortable with exploring the area.

“We want students to know what’s going on around campus,” Vidal said, “You don’t have to just come to campus and then leave. We know we have a lot of commuters, we want people to know that there is a beautiful town around.”

She encouraged students to “explore, get to know new people.”

Business owners and students alike were excited to engage with those around them.

Emma Kennedy (Criminal Justice, junior) and Kristen Loya (Communications, junior) were both at House of Random, enjoying ice cream together.

Loya shared that she just recently moved to Turlock and hasn’t had the chance to really explore the local community.

“I don’t drive, so getting around and exploring off-campus hasn’t been something I have done yet,” Loya said. “I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to go off of campus and walk around to see what’s around here. I don’t really know much about Turlock or anything.”

Kennedy shared that she was eager to meet new people.

“I’m just excited to get out and do something,” she said, “The whole reason I came – I moved into the dorms – was to start doing activities and make new friends as an adult that aren’t my high school friends.”

Berooni and Brolin Babela, the owners of House of Random, are both CSU Stanislaus alumni and are excited to give back to the community.

“I think it’s a brilliant idea and I am so happy to be a part of it.” Berooni Babela stated. “…I think there are a lot of great businesses that are hidden, sometimes, and they’re not right there for you to see.”

Having built and named their business on their experimentation process with creating unique sweets with liquid nitrogen, Berooni advises up-and-coming entrepreneurs to be unafraid in the face of risks.

“Don’t be afraid to take a risk,” Berooni said. “Follow it through. I think you learn a lot from your mistakes… We have learned a lot these past few years, we’ve made a lot of mistakes, and I’m so glad we made those mistakes because we’ve grown so much from it… At the youngest age, you can always recover and start over.”

Gabriela Soto (Creative Media, junior) was found exploring Paper Moon Stationery. Soto had heard about the event via word-of-mouth and was excited to explore the area.

“I really liked the art and everything,” Soto said, “I didn’t even know we had an art shop here, which is really nice to know!”

Victoria Mires, the owner of Paper Moon Stationery, is a Stan State alumna who earned her Master’s degree in Educational Technology. Mires was inspired by her older sister, who would send her stationery from the places she traveled through.

Stationery quickly became her “happy place” and she wanted to give downtown Turlock the same experience by offering a wide array of choices from a variety of vendors, artists and creatives.

“We’re kind of in a stationery desert – there isn’t there isn’t anything like this,” Mires said, “Like you could buy stationery pretty much everywhere… but the experience of coming in here is way different, you get a lot more.”

Mires shared that people visit all the way from Stockton to Clovis: “We have found our people…We have something for everybody.”

In the same vein, Main Street Antiques also offers a wide range of products provided by several vendors and collaborators that provide merchandise nearly daily.

When asked to describe their business, Diana Cotta, one of the managers for the past 24 years said: “You get a wide variety of vintage, of old – there’s 26 dealers here, so everybody has a place and everybody has what they like… That’s what I love about it.”

Lori Smith, the business owner, started working at Main Street Antiques 28 years ago, where she worked her way through the ranks of vendor, to employee, manager to owner. Through it all, she continues to have fun and support the local community.

“It is our happy place. It really is,” Smith said. “We have customers that always tell us ‘I come here, this is my happy place’ or you know if they need to decompress for about an hour, they come here and go down memory lane… [it’s] a lot of it is memories, you know, Grandma had it. Mom had it. You had it, or you’re buying back your childhood.”