LHS students celebrate diversity at Multicultural Festival

May 14—Logansport High School hosted its annual Multicultural Festival Saturday in the Berry Bowl, filling the arena with booths representing many of the student's cultures.

The event featured dances, international fashion and cuisine and the induction of students into the Logansport chapter of the National Chinese Honor Society.

The event opened with student Samantha Baker singing the national anthem and comments from Superintendent Michele Starkey, Principal Matt Jones, Mayor Chris Martin—an annual attendee at the festival—and Sen. Stacey Donato.

"Everyone across the state is paying attention to Logansport, Indiana because we are one of the most diverse cities in the state," the mayor said to the students. "That's because of all of you bringing that to the attention of those who need to hear it and those who need to see it."

Senior Melanie Contreras, an event organizer, said it took a couple of months to plan for the event.

"We are all different in this school," she said. "I have gone to different schools that are mostly people who are White-American. But it's really important to show who I am and who other people are. Being able to do this, you get used to other people's cultures. It lowers insensitive comments, a lot of offensive questions. When we have an event like this, people can get more answers (about other cultures.)"

Freshmen Aime Garcia and Kaily Contreras wore their quincea?era dresses as part of the festival.

"When you turn 15 it means you are turning into an adult so they do a big 15 party and these are the dresses," Garcia said.

Both of the girls had already celebrated their quincea?era. Contreras, sister of Melanie Contreras, said the experience was fun.

"All the attention was on us," she said.

Garcia said there are waltzes and a lot of dancing at the parties.

Yoslen Santana, a student from Cuba, worked a booth devoted to his native country while serving Cuban food. He said it was an amazing opportunity to teach the community about Cuba.

"They don't know what it's like to live in Cuba, to be Cuban," the freshman said. "It's a great event. It's beautiful. There are so many cultures coming together."

In the past teacher Chunmei Guan has organized the event but with many demands stretching her schedule thin, she didn't think she could handle planning another multicultural festival.

That's when the Logansport students stepped up.

"They asked to be the leaders," said Guan. "They gave each active leader a special title. Decoration manager, marketing manager, assistant chair."

To fundraise for the event, the students sold fried rice meals in partnership with the Century Career Center, raising 900 dollars in the process.

"This is their event," Guan said. "I'm so proud of them."