Staff Photo by Joe Camporeale Meadowbrook Elementary School in Hillsdale recently celebrated cultural diversity at its Second Annual Multicultural Festival, an event that involves the entire Meadowbrook School community. After a morning of ‘traveling the world’ from classroom to classroom, the students and staff enjoyed an educational and entertaining program presented by members of the Redhawk Native American Arts Council. Pictured is Eagle Claw, in full regalia, performing a traditional dance.

Passports in hand, the young travelers traversed the hallways at Meadowbrook Elementary School on their way from to Columbia, from to , to from . In all, 24 countries were represented in as many classrooms as the school community celebrated cultural diversity at the Second Annual Multicultural Festival.

Each class in the school is assigned a country to represent and do research on the its history and culture. This knowledge is applied to projects they create and display for visitors to their “country” during the festival.

The event was organized by Deanna Nelsen-DeFalco, the school’s guidance counselor, who also facilitated the school’s first festival last year. Of the educational value of the event, she said, “Celebrating diversity has great importance to the different groups [represented] in the school] and can foster positive multicultural interactions and understandings among students and teachers.”

Since all the students were “on the move” with their teachers, parent volunteers were stationed in each classroom, and some were presenters for the country represented. Each class had prepared an activity for their visitors to enjoy including coloring, puzzles, and media presentations, among others.

After a full morning of international travel, and a lunch break, the entire school community attended an assembly. The guests were members of the Redhawk Native American Arts Council New York State, who presented an educational and entertaining program that included music, dancing and information about indigenous  art forms and cultures.

Principal Richard Spirito said “We are very proud of our Multicultural Festival and how much our students learn from it and truly enjoy it.” He credits Nelsen-DeFalco’s efforts, as well as the, “the great parents who did an excellent job of presenting many countries.”

STAFF PHOTO BY KATHRYN A. BURGER This is a plastic water bottle artfully disguised as an Egyptian mummy. This and several others were part of the display in Marie Cartwright’s fourth grade class room.