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Date: 5/17/2023
AGAWAM — The town’s cultural diversity was on full display at School Street Park on May 6.
Ashley Martins, the Agawam schools’ director of English language education, said the goal of the event organized by Agawam educators was to provide an opportunity for families of students to showcase their cultural identities.
“We wanted participants be immersed in the cultures that make up our diverse community here in Agawam,” said Martins. “We hope that families who attended left with an asset-based perspective from this experience.”
A variety of cultures were represented with displays, food and information about their native countries, including Iraq, Turkey, Morocco, Ukraine, Russia, China, Puerto Rico, Kosovo, Albania and Lebanon.
Organizations and groups at the festival included Peace Valley Foundation, Agawam Rotary Club, Agawam Cultural Council and Thousand Cranes Art Studio. In addition, the school district’s Family Resource Center and the Agawam Public Library participated in the event.
“This a pretty nice event,” said Valerie Murawsky of Agawam, who was one of about 80 people who attended the festival. “I didn’t know there were so many different cultures in Agawam.”
Murawsky, who moved to the United States from Kazakhstan 13 years ago, said having a diverse community is “extremely” important.
“Diversity brings people closer together so they can cooperate to benefit our children,” she said.
Stanislas Coly, from Thousand Cranes Art Studio in Agawam, was one of the storytellers who read to children at the event. He said the event was a way for the community to exchange and share diverse cultures.
“The world is not just Agawam,” he said. “We need to get exposed to different cultures — and education in the schools helps kids learn about and understand other cultures.”
David Zeka and Egzonia Grainca of Agawam brought their 5-year-old son to the event to help him learn about other cultures.
“We try to teach him other cultures. There are so many different cultures in town, so we should all learn about them,” said Grainca, who is from Albania.
“We need to learn to respect other cultures — both in Agawam and around the world,” said her husband. “We want people to respect our country, so we should show respect to other countries, too.”
David Tokgoz, an Agawam resident and the executive director of the Peace Valley Foundation, came to the festival to share cultural items and traditions from his native Turkey. He said one of the important missions of his organization is peace with other cultures and communities.
“Many people don’t understand that Islam is a peaceful culture. We all live in the same world, and we share many common things. There is no need for fighting and violence,” he said.
Planning for the event began in January after the idea for a multicultural festival came out of discussions last September with the four elementary school lead teachers about family engagement, especially with English learner families.
“The idea originated with school staff who understand the importance of engaging all families and showcasing the diversity in our community,” Martins said.
She added that having an event of this nature fits into the district’s strategic plan and core values of building “supportive relationships that foster collaboration, inclusiveness and a positive environment,” as well as improving its community outreach and engagement.
Martins said Agawam’s schools have seen a large growth of English learners, especially in the past year with the arrival of families from Ukraine.
“Our student body currently speaks 34 different languages and come from 27 countries,” said Martins.
In addition to Martins, other educators who helped to organize the festival included Marlene DeJesus, the district’s social-emotional director; Valerie Smart and Ayla Alkan from the district’s Family Resource Center; and the four lead teachers at the district’s elementary schools: Andrea Polley of Robinson Park School, Pam Rivers of Granger School, Amanda Foley of Clark School and Sarah Domina of Phelps School.
Martins said the organizers wanted to host the event in an outside, open space. She explained that there has been a multicultural festival at the park during the past few years — required to be outdoors because of COVID-19 restrictions on indoor gatherings — and it has been well-received.
“We wanted to continue this tradition and highlight what a wonderful resource School Street Park is for families who were coming just for our festival. There were many people visiting the park for other reasons who also enjoyed the festival,” Martins said.
Roberta Page, president of It’s West Springfield Inc., came to the Agawam multicultural festival to get ideas for a festival she is planning for the fall in West Springfield.
“This is terrific,” she said. “The more we learn about each other, the better we are.”