The night began with Mexican and Chinese food served in the school’s cafeteria.  Outside was a table full of desserts, like rice pudding from India, a form of donuts called Mandazi from Kenya, sushi from Japan, banana bread from Guatemala, scones from England, trifle from Finland and Costa Rican smoothies.

VIEW PHOTO GALLERY

At any time during the event, family members could sign up for items in the Silent Auction.  PeaceCraft, a shop selling Fair Trade merchandise from around the developing world, provided many of the items in the Silent Auction.  Participants wrote their names and how much they would be willing to pay for an item they liked on the auction sheet. Whoever would be willing to pay the most for an item could buy it at the end of the night.  All proceeds from the Silent Auction and the dessert table went to the Prince of Peace Home for Girls in San Cristobal, Guatemala.

After dinner, CMMS students and family members performed dances in front of the cafeteria, beginning with a choreographed routine to the song “Waka Waka (Time for Africa).”  Contra dancers followed this show, clapping and spinning to traditional Appalachian music.  Young cloggers between the ages of two and seven then danced to the popular song “Gangnam Style.”  Older and more experienced cloggers continued the show, dancing to the song “Party Rock Anthem.”

Between 6:30 and 7p.m., a bellydancing group called “Jewels of the Nile,” gave lessons in the cafeteria.  Heather Green, one of the group members, explained that “Bellydance comes from Middle Eastern Dance and it’s a tradition that’s thousands of years old. It’s a way for females of the society to get together, let their hair down and just relax and have a good time with each other.”  The group then offered lessons for tribal style bellydancing. “Tribal bellydance is a lot more technical.  You’re actually focusing on the moves, and in other forms of bellydance you focus on the moves too, but with tribal it’s a lot less actual aerobic movement and it’s more stationary, isolating one part of your body and doing something with that,” said Jasmine Rutherford, another member of the group and a 4^th-grade teacher.

Between dances, students were encouraged to explore the 15 booths in the gym that represented different countries.  Students got their “Passport” packets signed by country representatives once they felt the student had learned enough about their country to earn the signature.  If a student had a signature from every booth they were entered for a chance to win a prize.  “The kids were very interested,” said Solomon Tesfamichael, a Berea College sophomore who was in charge of the booth that represented Eritrea, a country from East Africa.  “I showed them the animals and culture, and I asked them about geographical locations like ‘Where is Africa?’ The atmosphere of that event was excellent.”

Some students were not excited to visit every country, as Mohammad Jaber, another Berea College sophomore, discovered.  He was in charge of the booth that represented Iraq, and many students who approached him only knew about the war.  He used this opportunity to teach about Iraq’s culture and history, but one talk with an eight-year-old girl stood out among the others.  “I asked her, ‘Do you want to know anything about Iraq today?’ She said, ‘No, I know everything about Iraq.’  In the beginning she kind of refused to listen,” Jaber said.  “Her brother worked in the military and told her all the bad stuff about the war and the death.”  Jaber asked for two minutes of her time so he could show her more about Iraq.  The two minutes turned into five or six.  “I’m happy that she wanted to listen and she did, because I was able to change her mind.”  At the end, this little girl got her Passport signed by Jaber and, like many other students, walked away with a fuller understanding of another country.

The Cultural Night ended with a bang, literally, as students lined up for their turn to hit a Piñata.   Afterwards, the students gathered their candy, crafts, and any items bought in the Silent Auction and headed home with a new appreciation for other cultures.

When the event began, students were split into groups to talk to each volunteer.  Periodically, an announcement to switch classrooms rang through the speakers, signaling for students to move on to activities like making crafts for a cause, packing boxes full of essentials for the needy, cleaning the school bleachers, or learning the history of well-known groups like the American Red Cross.

“I felt like it was a very positive activity for our students,” said Stacy Brockman, GEAR UP Academic Specialist at Clark-Moores and coordinator of the event.  “They were really engaged and learned about charitable organizations in our community, state and the world.”

Before the event, students also decorated hearts for 26 Acts of Kindness, a movement that honors the victims of the Newtown, Connecticut school shooting.  The students wrote on each heart an act of kindness they witnessed or performed. The best hearts were chosen to be part of the 26 hung on the wall for Community Service Day.

The event was sponsored by Berea College’s GEAR UP partnership.  Berea College and 19 school districts from southeastern Kentucky work together to ensure that every student becomes college and career ready.

Organizations that participated in Community Service Day included the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, the Richmond Fire Department’s Toys for Kids program, the Humane Society, the Ty Lucas Foundation, Hope’s Wings, Grace Now, Habitat for Humanity, Prince of Peace Orphanage in Guatemala and the Pregnancy Help Center.

The event allowed students at Clark-Moores Middle School to engage in community service and learn how to continue to do so in the future. “The feedback from our students has been exciting,” Brockman said.

Rev. Gail E. Bowman, Director of Berea College’s Campus Christian Center and College Chaplain, spoke about the importance of marching and being passionate about freedom. “We march because Dr. King had a marching tradition, we march because the city of Berea has a marching tradition, we march because we have a right and it is right to march,” she said.  “We must march because we want to be peace on feet.”

The marchers included 15 children who were prepared and motivated to participate after prepping for it the day before with the help of Kentucky College Coach staff members and junior volunteers. The team met with the children at the Ecovillage, an ecologically sustainable residential and learning complex for Berea College students with families. The facility also houses a childcare center for campus children and provides labor opportunities for students interested in sustainability.

Volunteers worked with the children to create banners and posters for the march that were decorated with colorful handprints and thought bubbles that represented the children’s dreams of the future. KCC staff member Ismaila Ceesay recognized that it was important for the four junior volunteers to learn how to build community through service by helping others.

“The KCC students participated because part of coaching students to get into college includes showing them other areas, other than academics, that can help them,” said Ceesay.  “Volunteerism is one of these tangibles and the students decided to use the MLK event as an opportunity to serve their community by being contributing members of their community, learning other skills like mentoring, organizing an event, and just simple responsibility.”

Ceesay said the Ecovillage has a history of participating in the MLK Day marches, and that the children who continued this tradition enjoyed it. “The children loved making their own flags at the Sunday MLK event prep, and they loved marching with the adults because they know marching towards equality is an important event,” he said.

The Ecovillage children’s parents walked alongside them, holding the banner, displaying a heart, the handprints of their children, and a caption that read “United With Love.”   “The parents like marching in this event because it is a teaching opportunity for them,” Ceesay said. “Their willingness to help their children read stories about MLK prompts questions from the kids about MLK and civil rights, which is the whole point.”

Ceesay pointed out that the junior volunteers learned from the event, too. “They were hopefully infected with the volunteerism bug!” he said.

 MLK MARCH PHOTO GALLERY

The goal of this and future events is to provide care for the caregiver.  Linda Potter, Parent Engagement Specialist for Jackson County, and community partners wanted to make sure these grandparents know how appreciated they are for stepping up to care for their grandchildren. Family Court Judge Gene Clark noted just how much difference grandparents make. “If it were not for grandparents,” he said, “my court system might shut down.  These kids have to go somewhere, and if the grandparents or other family does not step up, or are unable and unwilling to take care of them, they’re going to have to go to foster care….and quite frankly all of my foster care beds are full.”  He said that providing help to these grandparents is essential to benefit the next generation of children who, through parental substance abuse or other reasons, have no one to take care of them except these family members.

Other presenters at the event included Carole Gnatuk, a child development specialist from the University of Kentucky; Doug Burnham, director of the Grandparents and Other Relatives Raising Children Training Project; Kimberley Collett, supervisor at the Department for Community Based Services; Linda Potter, Parent Engagement Specialist for Promise Neighborhood; and Neal Broadus, Dropout Prevention/Parent Involvement Coordinator for the Jackson County Public Schools.

Future monthly or bi-monthly group meetings will continue to provide assistance to grandparents raising their grandchildren.   In these meetings they can share their experiences as well as receive legal advice regarding custody, adoption and foster parent issues.  For more information about future meetings and topics contact Linda Potter at (606) 287-7505 or linda_potter@berea.edu.