EDITORIAL: Celebrating diversity and differences that strengthen community

Posted 3/31/15

That designation was established in 2004 “to recognize and honor the diversity surrounding us all. By celebrating differences and similarities during this month, organizers hope that people will get a deeper understanding of each other,” …

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EDITORIAL: Celebrating diversity and differences that strengthen community

Posted

April is Celebrate Diversity Month and it’s well worth cheering about. 

That designation was established in 2004 “to recognize and honor the diversity surrounding us all. By celebrating differences and similarities during this month, organizers hope that people will get a deeper understanding of each other,” according to Diversity Best Practices.com

Here in Powell, we will celebrate diversity during the annual Multicultural Showcase at Northwest College from 1-3:30 p.m Saturday, April 11. 

The annual event predates April’s designation as Celebrate Cultural Diversity Month. It started as a food festival more than two decades ago, and has grown from a relatively small gathering to a large, colorful, highly anticipated gala that attracts people from around the Big Horn Basin, as well as some from south-central Montana. 

This spring, Northwest College has 67 international students from more than 30 countries who will share food, costumes and customs from their countries. 

During the showcase, attendees can visit places all over the world without leaving the DeWitt Student Center. They can see colorful costumes, watch intricate dances, listen to new forms of music and sample an amazing selection of delicious food from countries around the globe.

Adults and children alike are mesmerized by the cultural diversity they can taste, enjoy and take part in. As one enthusiastic participant observed last year, the event transforms the student center into “the best restaurant in the Big Horn Basin.”

In addition to broadening attendees’ horizons, this year’s event will help one or more Northwest College students expand theirs as well. Donated items “cultural, ethnic, diverse or fun” will be sold in a silent auction, with the proceeds going toward a study-abroad scholarship that will help pay the cost for a Northwest College student to experience education and life in another country. 

We were reminded recently that not all people or communities celebrate diversity as well as Powell and Northwest College do. 

At the conclusion of the NWC men’s basketball game against Northwest Florida State College during the NJCAA Division I tournament in Hutchinson, Kan., a couple of weeks ago, local fans taunted NWC team members Christopher Boucher and William “Nicky” Desilien, both from Canada, with shouts of “USA! USA!”

How small and spiteful those fans appeared to us. What a shame it was that they couldn’t see what is apparent to us: Boucher and Desilien became part of the NWC men’s basketball “family” through a team culture of mutual support and acceptance. There, each player’s strengths are valued, regardless of where that person came from — and that’s a big part of what got the team to the national championship games in the first place. How unfortunate it was that those taunting spectators couldn’t understand or appreciate that.

International students contribute to other NWC sports as well, including women’s basketball, volleyball and both men’s and women’s soccer teams as well as rodeo.

Now, this isn’t to say there is no room for improvement here in our corner of Wyoming. The Powell community, as a whole, has expanded its acceptance of cultural diversity in the last few decades and has learned to appreciate differences, as well as similarities, between cultures. But prejudice is not entirely banished from our community, though we continue to hope it might be, some day.

We invite those who have not had or taken an opportunity to learn about other cultures to attend the Multicultural Showcase and to enjoy all there is to see, hear, eat and do there. The experience can open the mind, as well as the eyes, of the beholder.

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