BY MAGGIE BEAMGUARD, Insider Editor
The West End Elementary School gymnasium resembled Charlotte Douglas International Airport this March as students, passports in hand, journeyed to 15 countries.
The occasion was the school’s second Multicultural Fair, an event celebrating the heritage, ties and travels of West End Elementary families.
Parent Vikki Crafter brought the idea to Principal Shaun Krencicki and Media Specialist Heather Bridges in 2020 after learning about a similar event down the road at West Pine Elementary. Crafter recognized the opportunity that WEE had to highlight the cultural diversity of the student body. Crafter herself is a native of Zimbabwe.
The first event, in January 2020, was met with enthusiasm and received positive feedback from parents, teachers, volunteers and students. After a pandemic hiatus, this year’s revival was scheduled for spring in the hopes that COVID-19 case numbers would be favorable to a gathering.
When excited students arrived in the gymnasium March 10, they received “passports” and were directed by groups to visit one of the 15 countries represented. Volunteers who either lived in or traveled to one of the represented countries received the visitors and had just four minutes to stamp the passports and tell the tourists about their country’s culture, geography and history using photos, music, traditional dress, sculptures, artifacts, and even spices to smell.
The one limitation facing presenters was that they could not share any delicious international dishes, given the number of students and potential allergies.
If there could not be food, at least there was music. Music teacher Talia Cieri provided a listening station with sounds from around the world.
The biggest challenge for the volunteers was tailoring each presentation to different age groups. Crafter, who shared about her home country for the second time, involved her daughter, Jasmine, a fourth grader at WEE, in creating her presentation. Crafter sought her advice particularly regarding what would interest the younger grades. Jasmine exclaimed, “Baby animals!” Baby animals of Zimbabwe it was.
Crafter says the best part of the event was seeing the excitement on the kids’ faces.
“You know when they get to come up, and they’ve just been to Italy and then they come to Zimbabwe — and you couldn’t get two more different countries — and there they’ve talked about pizza and whatever, and then here we’ve talked about lions and rhinos.
And then they move on to, you know — Yemen. And who knows what they are going to learn about Yemen. And they’re very excited when they come in.”
Bridges said the students were most excited about an augmented reality experience using Merge EDU. Digital Integration Facilitator Jill Rogers arranged for students to use this technology showcasing architectural features from around the world such as the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and the Colosseum. Using iPads and printed bar-coded cubes, the landmarks popped up in 3D right before the students’ eyes.
The benefits of this multicultural fair are many. Bridges says it helps the students “just to realize that even though we’re a small community, we have so many diverse cultures surrounding us. It gives them an understanding and appreciation that we are such a diverse population. It’s great to also see them realize where we are in relation to the rest of the world.”
Many students who participated in the first multicultural fair two years ago proudly shared they still had their passports. The event clearly made an impression. Says Bridges: “I had a kindergartner — he’s in second grade now — and he became obsessed with geography learning where things are located, what languages each country speaks and what religions were followed.”
Another benefit of this event is its intergenerational aspect. One student was excited to introduce her dad and to share how he spent years living in Yemen while serving in the Air Force. And a third grader presented the country of Thailand with his father and grandfather.
“I think they like coming to present together,” Bridges said, “and to show all these artifacts. They are excited to share.”
Crafter concurs: “We get to share a little bit of our culture and history with everyone. And Jasmine gets to tell her peers about it, and they get to understand a little bit more about where we’re from.”
The hope of event organizers is that when students went home afterward, they shared their passports with their families. The well-traveled elementary school students “visited” 15 countries: Nicaragua, Belize, Venezuela, South Korea, Germany, Zimbabwe,Turkey, Yemen, Panama, Iceland, Canada, Ireland, Costa Rica, Philippines, Thailand. They didn’t need 80 days to go around the world. They just needed one class period.
Contact Maggie Beamguard at maggie@thepilot.com.
