A year of growth for Shafter in 2024

Shafter has seen much growth, considerable challenges and many achievements in the past year, and this is a look at a few of the highlights for the first half of 2024. The second half will be covered next week.

January

The year started off with a strange incident at the Shafter Cemetery. Police were called for a report of a strange happening at the cemetery. When officers arrived, they found eggs broken over a dozen graves, and chunks of raw meat, wrapped in twine with spikes through them. The Shafter Police Department ruled the incident as a case of someone practicing their religion, and not vandalism.

Shafter High celebrated, for the second straight year, a female wrestler qualifying for the State Wrestling tournament. Julissa Gonzalez, who made history last year, becoming the first Shafter female wrestler to qualify. Gonzalez still has two years of competition left, and she is expecting to be at the State level and keep improving.

February

Shafter saw the return of the Colours festival, with a large number of activities celebrating the arts and the community. Included in the event was the traditional Colours Fun Run. There was also a Coffee House music event held at the Tin Cup, featuring the David Bloemhof Jazz Trio. There was also an art gallery at the Tin Cup, featuring several local artists including Charlotte White.

Shafter welcomed a new economic development director after the retirement of Bob Meadows. Fernando Guerra came to Shafter from working in some of the largest markets in the world, including New York and Los Angeles.

March

Shafter celebrated the best and brightest for the year at the annual Shafter Chamber of Commerce Awards banquet. Among the honorees were Hitchcock's Auto Parts, which had celebrated its 100th year in business. Other honorees included the Shafter High Pride Pantry, Natalie Leyva, Fabian Jimenez and Shawn Pennell. Pennell retired this last year after coaching the Shafter High Girls basketball team for over a decade. Pennell built the program from a last place squad to a powerhouse that competed this past year in the Central Section semifinals.

Shafter named its newest Distinguished Young Woman, announcing that Camryn Eubanks would serve the city in the position. Celeste Perez was named the First Alternate.

Richland School District held a groundbreaking ceremony on its newest building. Located next to the Shafter Aquatic Center, the site will be used for the district's afterschool program. Superintendent Rosa Romero said that this location would unite the different schools into the area and would have more classroom area and activity areas for the students to take advantage of.

April

Shafter held its annual Sonrise Service at Mannel Park, with a gathering of residents from various denominations coming together to celebrate the Resurrection. Speaking at the event was Pastor Pat Coyle.

The community celebrated Easter with a variety of events throughout the city. Several churches, including Valley Bible Church, had special days in which there were games, stories, Bible lessons, and food.

In what is becoming one of the most attended events in town, the Ventura Circus made its annual stop in Shafter. The performances included acrobats, clowns, a motorcycle daredevil and a trapeze artist. The show had four different performances, with each drawing over 100 people.

May

Shafter held its annual Cinco de Mayo Festival, celebrating the holiday with a parade and a flurry of activities at Mannel Park. This year's Grand Marshal was retired Assistant Police Chief Diana Burnett. Burnett said that she has enjoyed the festival for years and loved watching it, as well as helping work it.

At Mannel Park, people enjoyed a variety of food, drinks, and were entertained by a host of musical acts, including Mento Buru, a Kern County legend. Also on hand was the Shafter Boxing Club, who performed exhibition matches for the crowd, displaying their championship winning form.

A local family held a ribbon cutting ceremony for their balloon and gift shop that they opened in downtown Shafter. Judith and Noe Gonzalez lost their daughter Italy last year to cancer. Gonzalez had had a successful bone marrow transplant the year before, but the disease came back. While she was recovering in the hospital, Italy and her mom would talk for hours about the business that they were going to open together.

June

Shafter schools celebrated their students with graduation ceremonies. Richland Junior High held its commencement exercises and heard remarks from student speakers Carlie Acosta and Adolfo Palacios Perez.

Shafter High saw their graduating class walk across the stage on Wednesday night, with one of the largest classes in history. Over 420 students were honored with a diploma. There also was history made when it was announced that there were five students who tied for the highest GPA, each with a perfect 4.5 score. They were Yolanda Bailey, Jeffrey Vander Poel, Fabian Denogean, Natalya Leyva and Valery Lopez Vicente.

Also celebrating graduations were Maple School, as well as GROW Academy.

GROW Academy decided to disinvite Shafter Mayor Chad Givens as guest speaker at their ceremony. Givens refused to remove a scripture from his speech.

Shafter High's Zale Mantas made history this year by becoming the first Shafter golfer to qualify for the Regional tournament, finishing in seventh place, just missing a place at the State tournament. Mantas started golfing at the age of 7.