By Devon Rocke, Staff Reporter
Every year towards the end of February, ‘Stoga hosts Unity Week to celebrate the diversity at the school. As suggested by its name, Unity Week runs from Monday through Friday in the main lobby, hosting different cultural clubs each day.
Before the event comes to fruition, however, Unity Week takes weeks of planning in advance.
“I had to email all of the culture clubs and ask them if they wanted to participate,” F.R.O.G.S Secretary Brendan Fahey said. “After that, I then had to ask each club what their period by period schedule was, and after getting results I put it in a master schedule for the whole week.”
After all the hard work, Unity Week finally began on Feb. 24 this year. On Monday, CURE, Best Buddies, Smiles for Autism and Shine clubs premiered among other religious and cultural clubs. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Multicultural Club, French Club and Latin X Culture Club made their debut. The Asian American Culture club and the K-POP Dance Club made an appearance as well on Thursday. Finally, on Friday, the African American Culture Club hosted all day, and featured an assembly.
“Unity Week is important because it lets the student body be more understanding of different cultures and be more cosmopolitan,” F.R.O.G.S vice president Evan Robinson said.
Depending on the club, an assortment of foods from their culture were offered in addition to entertainment. Some performed dances, and others music, for example the Asian American Culture Club with their march around Conestoga’s halls, featuring a dragon, fortune cookies and drums in their performance during eighth period on Thursday.
“Allowing people to live their lives, acceptance, is a big thing,” Peer Mediation advisor Marcia Mariani said. “A lot of people talk about tolerance but we, more or less, are trying to get people to come to a point where they can accept the fact that everybody has a right to live their lives, and everybody has value, everybody has importance, everybody deserves to be treated with respect.”
At the end of the day, Unity Week lives up to its name and does not fail to bring the students and staff at ’Stoga together to celebrate their differences.
Check out the photos from the Asian American Culture Club’s dragon dance performance below! Photos by Ananya Kulkarni, sports editor.
Devon Rocke can be reached at [email protected]
