Santa Rosa Junior College opens campus for Day Under the Oaks celebration

Not many weekend events offer Native American dance performances, a wheelchair basketball game, an explosive chemistry lab demonstration and a “sushi burrito” food truck.

Yet all of those attractions seemed to fit together naturally Sunday at Day Under the Oaks, the 34th annual celebration of diversity, accessibility and community on the Santa Rosa Junior College campus.

Roughly 10,000 people wandered the 100-acre campus during the free six-hour event, a college spokesman estimated.

“Our real goal is to say to people, ‘This is your college. Your kids can come here, and you can come here, at any age,’” said Ellen Maremont Silver, SRJC’s director of communication and marketing.

Counselors were on hand at the event to help students register for classes, and nearly 200 booths provided information on programs including psychiatric technician training, sports medicine and many more areas of study offered by the college.

Overall, the atmosphere was more festive than academic, with red-clad performers from the Redwood Empire Chinese Association twirling swords and wooden staffs and Native American dancers wearing elaborate feather headdresses.

The day’s programming appealed not only to a variety of interests, but also to a wide age range.

“I love to come and see the Native American dancers,” said Kay Reng, 72, of Santa Rosa, watching the outdoor performance on one of the campus lawns.

Over in the chemistry lab in the Bech Hall science building, Riley Mullen, 13, also of Santa Rosa, expressed enthusiasm for a lively “magic of chemistry” demonstration.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “I like thinking about the chemistry going on behind the experiments.”

Galen George, chairman of the college’s chemistry and physics department, won over his mostly young audience with hydrogen-filled balloons that burst into flames, then exclaimed, “I love this work!”

For a finale, George stood on top of a table and dropped hot water into an ice chest filled with liquid - producing some brief but impressive fog from the mixture.

“The whole idea is to make sure people aren’t intimidated by science,” said George, wearing goggles and a bright, multicolored lab coat.

In the college’s Tauzer Gym, the Santa Rosa Blazers played a fast-paced exhibition game of wheelchair basketball against SRJC students and faculty.

Carrie Hall of Santa Rosa came out to cheer on her boyfriend, Alan Richardson, a member of the Blazers who also attends the junior college.

“I go to all their games,” she said.

For a college campus event, Day Under the Oaks was remarkably friendly to both young and old.

In the Bertolini Student Center, kids flocked to a 40-by-60 model railroad display presented by the Coastal Valley Lines club, with several scale-model trains running simultaneously.

“We get excitement and enthusiasm from kids of all ages,” said club volunteer Joan Fleck.

You can reach Staff Writer Dan Taylor?at 521-5243 or dan.taylor@press?democrat.com. On Twitter?@danarts.