By McLean Grimes
Executive News Editor
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District MBUSD hosted its 7th annual International Day on April 20 from 2-4 p.m. at Manhattan Beach Middle School (MBMS) to celebrate the many traditions, customs, and cultures of the community.
International Day hosted various booths, each high- lighting one of 29 cultures or countries. Each offered food and drinks, information about the country, and activities.
“My favorite part was learning where certain foods or games originated from,” said senior participant Hannah Liebman. “And of course the endless amount of delicious, authentic cuisine. Specifically, I loved the noodles from Japan, as well as the French crepes and pastries.”
MBUSD families created booths to share their cultural heritage. People who worked at booths wore traditional clothing from each country. When entering the fair, participants were given a “passport” to travel to each booth.
“The crowd was very lively and enthusiastic,” said Liebman. “The booths were a little too close together so there were crowds at just about each station. Most everyone was having a good time and it overall seemed to be a success.”
While participants perused booths, live music and dances took place on the stage. Japanese Taiko Drumming, Korean traditional dance Sanjo, Palestine Dabke, Indian Bollypop Dancing Divas, Scottish Bagpipe music, Thai traditional dance, and West African-style drumming entertained attendees.
“Since much of the event centers around sharing visual and musical aspects of our community members’ heritage, it made sense to invite me to be part of the final execution,” said MBUSD Visual and Performing Arts Teacher on Special Assignment Scott Hughes. “I was able to work with the International Day Committee made up of experienced parent volun- teers and two district-level colleagues. Elvia Ortiz and Kate Juge, who partnered with me on all the planning, really made this 7th annual event a tremendous success.”
Junior co-president of the International Love of Various Ethnicities club (I-LOVE Club) Luisa Cervantes became involved with International Day seven years ago when her mom founded the event. Their goal in creating the event was to promote diversity and inclusion in the community, which they believed was lacking.
“Promoting the minorities in our small communi- ty was our goal as we come from one as well,” said Cervantes. “Being born in Mexico, then moving to England, Switzerland and California, I have gained many [different] perspectives of the world. Growing up attending international school in Europe, I was always educated on different ethnicities and cultures of our world so when moving here, my family wanted to expand our knowledge to Manhattan Beach.”
Cervantes encourages more MBUSD families to attend the event in hopes that it can continue to grow and gain more attention each year. The event is completely free for all participants.
“I believe this event has been extremely success- ful considering it began as a small idea in my family and has expanded to reach so many people,” said Cervantes. “This event has brought so much atten- tion to the delicious foods around the world and the different cultures people are proud to be a part of.”
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