World Fair 2010

After participating last year in the World Fair at Lin-Ley's school I volunteered to take on the task as organizer this year. Oh boy! I wanted to expand on last year's fair so I got busy. I contacted nearly every country around the world. I asked for literature, posters and prizes for the kids. And they delivered!!
I received packages at my office from:

Anguilla
Argentina
Aruba
Austria
Bahamas
Belgium
Belize
Britain
Cayman Islands
Colombia
Croatia
Curacao
Czech Republic
Dominican Republic
Dubai
Estonia
Finland
Germany
Honduras
Hong Kong
Indonesia
Israel
Japan
Jordan
Malaysia
Malta
Namibia
New Zealand
Portugal
Romania
Saint-Barthelemy
Scandinavia
Seycehelles Islands
Singapore
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
Spain
St. Kitts
Switzerland
Tahiti
Thailand
US Virgin Islands

The prizes some countries sent were amazing. We received t-shirts, tote bags, lip balm, pens, note pads, DVD's, luggage tags, pins, playing cards, puzzles, and on and on. So generous! In additional, we received enough posters for every child attending the fair.
The true disappointment was the response from the American contacts. The Statue of Liberty sent me one brochure. It is the same brochure that you would receive if you visit Liberty Island on a tour. It was the same result for Ellis Island and Washington DC. Sad but true.

In addition we received sponsor donations from AAA, Target, Office Depot, Lowe's, Costco, BJ's Wholesale Club, and Giant Grocery among others.

Let's just say my office became very full very fast. Let's also mention that the UPS delivery man was not my biggest fan as I work on the second floor of an office building without an elevator....

We also received help from many local restaurants. They would typically give us a nice discount on the foods we wanted to serve at the fair. However, with one phone call to the local McDonald's I was fortunate enough to receive 100 free apple pies! Wow!

We wanted to serve food from "around the world" so we had:
American Apple Pie
Mexican Quesadillas
Italian Pizza
Asian Spring Rolls
Indian Pakoras and Somosas

We had displays to represent many countries provided by families within the school. Most of the families that participate draw on their own personal family history for their displays. It is a very diverse school. Love that!



Here are Lin-Ley and Abby (another China Girl) with their Henna Hands.











Same girls, same pose, at last year's fair.










This is our display. You are supposed to represent one country but leave it to me to buck the system.






















We even included some family history. Bucking the system again ....


























These are just some of the displays:
























































The school's ESOL teacher sat for the entire fair and made Chinese bookmarks for the kids.


















































The Governor's Office of Middle Eastern Affairs attended our fair this year. (Disregard the Taiwanese flag behind her.)














Keeping up with Tru was quite a challenge.
















We also had some great performances. Several students, including Lin-Ley, spoke in foreign languages to include Chinese, Japanese and Farsi.


We had Persian music featuring the Persian Hammer Dulcimer and Daf Drum.















Indian (the country) dance.

















We were treated to a Native American song.
















The Governor's Office of Native American Affairs also attended and took time to share with the children and their families.




















Then everyone was invited to participate in a Native American social dance.





















































We had Irish dancers too.






















The Irish dance school stayed to perform six different styles of dance.

















Then the finale!
The Dragon Dancers.














Tru got an up close and personal look at the Dragon.
















This is the rest of the Dragon Dance crew.
















Just before this photo was taken I had held out a red envelope for the dragon and he came by to take it from me. Then the Happy Buddha came by and gave me a kiss.











The whole Dragon Dance troupe (with Tru's balloon blocking the photo!).
















The fair was wrapping up but there was still time for more Henna Hands.
















We supported Heifer International at our fair. Heifer helps people in need all around the world. Find out more about Heifer by visiting their website at:
http://www.heifer.org/

















Everyone was invited to place a red sticker on the countries they had visited before and a pink sticker on the countries they would like to visit in the future.








I would say the fair was a success. With so many generous donations and good attendance I think we have covered our costs while supporting a worthy organization.
A big thank you to everyone who helped!

Quote Of The Day:
"Aspire to inspire before you expire."
~Unknown (to me)