In June it will be 5 years that I have been buying the Bakersfield Californian in bulk everyday and distributing them to subscribers and to, what we call in the biz, ‘single copy’ purchasers all over and around Wasco California.

When I started I didn’t know very much about Wasco.

In the 70’s we lived in Bakersfield, my mom was an RN and worked with farm laborers a couple of days a week for a government program in Wasco. I only saw the place she worked when it was too foggy for her to drive and she had me driver her there. I remember it being near 7th Street, I think.
Of course Wasco is also famous for producing Roses. Since you don’t see many roses in bunches and it is just one of the crops you see growing around town it was 2 years before I was informed that it wasn’t cut roses but the kind you buy at a nursery. How was I supposed to know? I’ve driven every street in Wasco a thousand times, I don’t remember seeing any nurseries either.

As time passes I get more and more curious about the people and history that is all around me. I also want to do something to encourage more people to buy newspapers from me. I think I have come up with something that can do both things and also become a great asset to the Wasco community. Similar to some things the Californian has done I am starting a social networking web site just for the people of Wasco.

Wascotopia.com is open and accepting new members. Wascotopia is part of Ning.com a network of social networks, over 900,000 they say. If you have signed up for any of those all you have to do is fill in your email and password and you can start posting to Wascotopia right away. Even if you are new to the net it’s easy, get a 5th grader to show you.

This is a great opportunity for anyone who goes to a local church to start a group inside Wascotopia. If you are a teacher, student or parent please start a group for your school. You can list upcoming events and let everyone know about the happenings at your school, church or club. You can upload Photos of the big picnic and Videos the winning goal too.

Blog, Blog, Blog. Not only will you have the chance to inform the members of your group but the whole community. (you don’t have to belong to a group to blog) Once we have enough blogs about everything Wasco I will publish (with a bit of help from the Californian) a kind of ‘Readers Digest’ of Wascotopia to insert into the newspaper. This way everyone in town has the chance to be ‘on the same page’ as it were.

The Bakersfield Californian is a great way to know what’s going on in Bakersfield, Kern County, across the United States, around the world, do crosswords, look for sales, and a hundred other things. Even stories about Wasco appear. But when it comes down to it it’s the people who live in Wasco who know what’s important. Wascotopia can be a great part of the community if you make it happen. Tell everyone how important it is to participate by joining and have fun with this set of tools.