Orvis School of Nursing Hand Up resource fair aims to help local families

The Orvis School of Nursing is putting on its first Hand Up resource fair at Mills Park Saturday.

The resource fair is to help families in the Carson City community learn about local organizations and resources around town that can help struggling families.

“In 2014, we had 8,000 people in Carson City at or below the poverty line and only about 2,000 used local resources available (to help them out),” said Shelia Story, clinical instructor at University of Nevada, Reno. “We wanted to help non-profits get their name out there and help families be able to identify and use these resources.”

The idea for Hand Up came from nursing students at UNR. They had an assignment to find resources to help a fictitious family, and they found more than 80 local resources that could help struggling families so they decided to host the fair so more people would be able to recognize and utilize these community resources.

There will be nearly 40 vendors at the fair ranging from orthopedic services to athletic programs to Latino services. There will also be free food, school supplies and a free entry into a raffle with donated prizes and activities for kids such as a bounce house.

The event is also being sponsored by the Carson City Health and Human Services who were able to rent out Mills Park for the fair for free.

“People should come to this event to come and help their families,” Story said. “Its’ a hands up instead of hand out meaning we want to give information and knowledge about how people can help take care of their families.”

The event will be Saturday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Marv Teixeira Pavilion in Mills Park and will feature resources for people ranging from birth resources, blood drives, senior services and mental health services. It’s free to the public.