St. Emily Celebrates Culture Fest

St. Emily School in Mount Prospect recently sponsored its 2nd Annual Culture Fest to celebrate the colorful diversity that makes up its student population.

Parents worked together to decorate booths showcasing clothing, national symbols, trivia, and décor from Germany, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Mexico, The Philippines, Poland, and the USA. Authentic, exotic foods were available for purchase from these booths, including kimbop, mandu, arancini, papusas, and kolaczkis - and mac-n-cheese.

Entertainment included members of the St. Emily student body performing in their professional groups of Korean drummers, Filipino bamboo-branch-dancing tiniklers, and Polish dancers. Also, all students present from grades Prekindergarten through 8th performed the Mexican Hat Dance, as well as an amateur flamenco dance routine, learned in their Spanish classes at school.

Multicultural games filled the main hallway, manned by the students in the upper grades. These included mock Running of the Bulls races from Spain; sugar-skull face painting from Mexico; and Korean, Polish, and Filipino versions of hacky sack-kicking. Language Stars, an organization that specializes in foreign language instruction for children, read stories in Spanish, French, and Mandarin to the students as well.

The evening of educationally fun experiences rounded out with the raffling off of ethnic-themed baskets.

"Everyone present had a wonderful time," stated Principal Mary Hemmelman about the event, which doubled as a mini-fundraiser for the school.

St. Emily School is located at 1400 E. Central Rd., where the borders of Mount Prospect and Des Plaines meet. For more information about the school, please call 847.296.3490 or visit www.stemilyschool.org .