CCHS holds Multicultural Festival
By PAMELA GRANT
Cove Leader-Press
Copperas Cove High School (CCHS) went all out for last Thursday night’s Multicultural Festival. They decked out the halls with flags and informational posters featuring each of the continents featuring several countries within each continent as well as activities and goodies.
The Multicultural Festival started at 5:30 p.m. and ran until about 8 p.m. In addition to decking out entire hallways dedicated to their own continent, they also had an art display, food, a poster contest, and live entertainment.
The event began last year with Lisa Yates, World Language Chair and Spanish teacher for the school. She said that she was inspired by her students who wanted to do something positive to combat the negativity in the world.
“With all the negativity in the news, they wanted to do something positive to unite the campus and recognize all culture,” said Yates.
After last year’s success, they started a multicultural club which averaged about 26 active members with members coming and going throughout the year. Those students helped put on Thursday’s festival, researching and finding out interesting information about whichever countries and continents interested each individual the most.
“They came up with some really cute ideas. They’re very creative and very artistic,” said Yates.
Ernest Vanston, a CCHS 9th grader, performed with the Pacific Rim Dancers as one of the night’s first performances.
“I just wanted to represent my culture,” said Vanston. “It feels really nice when you see people smiling.”
Vanston said that he liked getting to perform in front of so many people who appreciated the Pacific Rim culture. Vanston added that he enjoys learning about his own culture, Micronesia, and sharing that knowledge with others. He also said that he likes learning about other cultures as well and wants to learn anything that he can.
Most of the students who volunteered for the event created their own posters where they shared information about the country of their choice or led others through various fun activities.
Students in the multicultural club were allowed to choose which countries they wanted to highlight for the festival and Paige Perry, a CCHS 12th grader, chose to highlight Switzerland.
“I think it’s a cool country,” said Perry. “The culture and the way they celebrate is very interesting. They do things very differently than how we do in America…They have a very people-based culture.”
Perry added that she loves seeing everyone at the event enjoying the different cultures, reading the posters, and learning about a variety of different places and cultures.
Ryan Reed, President of the Multicultural Club and a CCHS 12th grader, said that they wanted to continue Mrs. Yates’ Multicultural Night event and help take some of the stress off of her.
“I think this Multicultural Night is going really great,” said Reed. “It’s important to have a night like this, because everyone wants to feel represented, and everyone wants to find people of their culture. So that’s why we had all seven continents…we wanted to make sure that all people were represented.”