Community Coalition in Oroville, California

Oroville, California, is a rural town of about 75 miles northeast of Sacramento. The economy is very poor, and more than 60% of the diverse middle school student body is on the federal free or reduced lunch program.

In January 1998, two 7th grade girls approached Tere` Lawrence, a counselor at Central Middle School, about starting a True Love Waits initiative at the school. The girls were members of Venture Club, a Christian club for 7th and 8th graders for which Tere` served as advisor.

After obtaining administrative approval, the Venture Club invited other Christian clubs or student groups in the area to hold True Love Waits campaigns and then join in a celebration the morning of Valentines Day. The students decided to have each school representative hammer in the ground a stake with the number of pledges on their campus, invite a local government representative to speak, and have students talk about why their commitment to remain sexually abstinent until marriage is important to them. Local news media also were invited to attend.

After the first True Love Waits community celebration, the Oroville City Council gave student representatives a proclamation recognizing and supporting the True Love Waits campaign. The County Board of Supervisors subsequently issued a similar resolution.

The next year, Venture Club officers started a True Love Waits Planning Committee comprised of representatives from participating campuses. In the years that have followed, each campus continues to develop its own True Love Waits campaign and students volunteer to host the community celebration. Venture Club members hold competitions for True Love Waits posters, which are created by students to help promote awareness of the campaign. In addition, the local newspaper covers the event annually.

In 10 years, 4,269 pledges have been represented at True Love Waits community celebrations, some of which were reaffirmations of their original commitment.

During the 10th anniversary celebration in February 2007, more than 350 teens pledged to remain abstinent until marriage. Principal Tom Hammonds of Oroville Christian School read a proclamation from the Oroville City Council that declared February 7-14 “True Love Waits Campaign Week” as a time to encourage all to promote sexual abstinence.

Participants and supporters of the Oroville-area True Love Waits campaign include six local schools, Caring for Women, the Community Health Alliance of Oroville (a community coalition of people concerned about health and safety issues) and the YMCA.

Details of this innovative grassroots True Love Waits campaign follow. True Love Waits Oroville community photos and other information is available at www.civentureclub.com.