Celebrating Loleta and unifying the community

According to Visit Redwoods, Loleta used to be a train station known as Swauger Station. An annual celebration, Swauger Station days, was started in the 1920s to bring the community together. This year, the Loleta Chamber of Commerce put on the first Loleta Unity Community celebration. Brenda Juarez, member of the Loleta Chamber, spoke on the chamber’s intentions with this event. 

“As a chamber, we all decided we’re going to try and do something different, something that also invites the rest of our community, the rest of 95551 area code people,” Juarez said. 

A day like this can build relationships that help the community work together.

“A day like this is super important because what you realize in small towns like Lolita is that you really do need to know your neighbor,” Juarez said. “You need to come together and really help each other out. Because in moments when we’ve had natural disasters or things going on like no electricity, which happens at least a couple of times a year, you really need to be able to support each other and know that you have someone that you can rely on.”

Juarez continued on the importance of this event. 

“It’s really important because once we come together and unity builds, you realize that transformation happens. People build each other up. Schools change and transform in a good way, and businesses open, people thrive,” Juarez said. “So that’s why it’s important.” 

The chamber helps the community thrive. 

“We’ve just been working on a lot of envisioning what we want to see our community, what we want it to feel like and be like, and then taking action so that we can actually have events that unify our community,” Juarez said.