Multicultural fair hosts music, games, info

BBCC site for celebration of differences

PHOTO: Participating students cluster together for a photo during the Multicultural Fair Thursday morning at Big Bend Community College.

Origami and the Ukrainian dish vereniki.

Ordinarily, not two things you'd expect to find together.

But there they were, Thursday morning, and nobody batted an eye.

That's because Big Bend Community College was the location for the annual Multicultural Fair, put on by the Big Bend Community College Foundation Opportunity Center.

The fair offered displays from, among others, Sudan, Mexico, Japan, Ukraine and Scotland, offering visitors a glimpse into some of the traditions and cultures of each country.

Musical and poetry acts, including the debut of a performance put on by about 150 fifth-graders from Mattawa, were put on throughout the event, which began a little before 10 a.m.

Sandy Cheek, director of Basic Skills, said that the reasons for putting the fair on were twofold.

"Partially it's to help our students have an opportunity to display their cultures and talk about them, and share this information with the larger community," Cheek said. "But it also goes the other direction too. It's our way of kind of giving thanks to the college and the community for providing classes for English as a Second Language students and people of different cultures, and also to help the community become more aware of all the diversity that we have here in the Columbia Basin."

That's becoming more important, Cheek said, as one looks at the demographics and the way things are changing.

"You need to recognize that there's a tremendous influx of people who are non-native speakers of English, who are coming from different countries, and that has an impact on your local economy and how you do business around here," she said. "The sooner you're aware of that, the better you're able to provide services and create those partnerships to serve those folks."

Cheek said that the Opportunity Center generally has between 150 and 200 students in classes any quarter. The event also saw participation from BBCC community members and students in MEChA, she said.

James Akook was scheduled to sing a traditional Sudanese song and reading a poem.

"Today is so important because it's so diverse, lots of people getting together to show their culture, different kinds of culture," Akook said. "It's so important; that's an exciting day."

Maria Villa was wearing a traditional dress, used to celebrate Mary, the mother of Jesus, on Dec. 12. She said all the women from her hometown wear them for nine days.

"I want to represent my culture for Mexico," Villa said. "I want to teach everybody here that our culture in Mexico is very very valuable and (it's) important to us to show what we celebrate in Mexico."