Multicultural Day at Hickey Elementary
Legacy Organization of Vietnamese Enrichment (L.O.V.E.) founded by Miss Nebraska USA 2015, Cung Hoàng Kim, and her family, had the pleasure of being invited to Hickey Elementary of Plano, Texas, to perform along with many other cultural groups for their multicultural night on October 9th, 2015..
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Students are given a cultural “passport” made by their school, so they can travel around to each country to collect stamps which they can use to redeem a gift later on. It is a colorful global map in round shape that captured children’s attention. I thought that this was a great opportunity to show children how diverse our United States country is, and that we are surrounded in so many beautiful cultures.
Every continent had their own section in the gym/cafeteria to set up their cultural displays and activities for students to learn from on that night. The Chinese table next to us had a calligraphy grid for the children to try copying Chinese characters and the Australian table shared their boomerang art.
We decorated our table with Vietnamese wood art, lacquery boxes, and sequined slippers, along with kit kat bars for children. Every time they get our chocolate candy, we remind them to practice saying “Thank You” as a small but essential lesson for their young age group. We also had 3 different shapes of stamps (Saigon, Vietnam, Good Job) ready to stamp every student's passport coming to our Vietnamese table. The school invited a diverse range of performers, from young Turkish dancers in adorable dresses to elder Japanese women with umbrellas. I remember being fascinated by a mixed-age group of Mexican dancers with both adults and children who were performing rhythmically together without missing single beat.
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Throughout the evening, various cultural groups performed in the center of the gym. What I enjoyed the most about this was how all families came together at the school, both young and old, to share their culture for the evening. I see many parents encouraging their children to step up to learn about the USA and giving them more information about our great country.
One young boy lingered around our Vietnam table and later told us that his grandpa fought in the Vietnam War (1955-1975). We told him, “Please tell your grandpa we thank him for his service in Vietnam before 1975.” I love how aware the American children of the new generation are. When I looked around, the whole big room was filled with smiles and curious parents recording performances which they found to be exciting and stunning.
Professor Trần Thủy Tiên, Chị Cung Hoàng Nhi and I were one of the last cultural performers for the night. We were ready to show our Vietnamese ribbon dance in our Áo Dài. An American teacher of the school stopped us afterwards and complimented us on how interesting it was to watch our colorful ribbon dance which made us feel really warm in return. The MC also loves to listen to the peaceful music of our dance, which was skillfully selected by Chị Hoàng Nhi.
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I had a warm welcoming experience here and I hope that all the culturally diverse families who attended the Multicultural Day that Friday night felt the same way.
Texas, Ngày 25.10.2015
NGỌC HƯƠNG (Nhóm Biển Xanh - Saturday Ocean Group)
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