Webutuck celebrates diversity with dinner


 

WEBUTUCK — District residents celebrated cultural diversity on Wednesday night as the school district held its fifth annual multicultural dinner at Webutuck Elementary School.

Adults and students dined on food from around the world, including bangers and mash from England, Russian tea cakes, apple strudel, Italian panini, Spanish rice and Swedish meatballs.

The band Los Chicos de la Cumbia played Spanish music as diners ate.

District English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher Jim Orr organized the dinner. He said the district has held the dinner annually to celebrate the diversity of the community.

"We have [parents] bring food and the food is supposed to represent their cultural heritage; everyone brings something different, " Orr said. "Particularly up here, we have a lot of diversity in our community. It’s also for the children, they don’t really get exposure to who is around them. It’s really for the kids and it’s one of the few events at Webutuck that’s not sports related."

District teacher Janet DesChamps said the dinner was important to bring together different backgrounds in the community.

"We like to have students and their families come together, meet each other and share food," DesChamps said. "I think we just have to look at our country because it’s a nation of diversity. It always changes all the time."

DesChamps said that diversity is an important part of the school district’s social studies curriculum.

"The common thread is that we all have the same things in common, no matter how diverse our background," DesChamps said.

ESL teacher Monica Baker-Bozik said the area has a very diverse community, especially when it comes to the Spanish-speaking population.

"It’s a great night to bring the extended families to just have a casual night together," Baker-Bozik said. "No stress, just meeting people in the community they may have not met before. Learning about other cultures is important because it teaches kids how to get along with others. It also helps them understand different people with different backgrounds and understand different languages. We are all in this community together."

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