'The International Festival Day' (IFD) is Lincoln Community School's way of celebrating our multinational and multicultural diversity. Beginning with 'Mother Tongue Week', organized by our LCS Language Acquisition team, and culminating with the IFD event on Saturday, February 25th, we celebrate over 65 different languages present in our community. Students and staff take part in teaching each other their mother tongues, listen to music from around the globe and demonstrate our beautiful diversity of cultures through dance, song, poetry and prose.
Saturday's IFD then brought the families from our whole community together, including ambassadors from over 20 embassies. After preparing all morning, the event kicked off with the Flag Parade. Each nation's flag was borne by a student rep and followed by a procession of the other country representatives, and accompanied by a march played by the School Band, led by Mr. James Waterkotte. The Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) volunteers, under their President Ms. Maira Zubair's leadership, guided the community in representing their countries under the common theme: 'Many threads weave into one fabric, embracing and celebrating our cultural diversity.' Country representatives decorated their booths with national flags and fabric, artifacts, books, video presentations, games, food and others items to share what is important and/or symbolic of their particular culture. A joint community dance challenge, led by Ms. Vanessa Gomez, and many other country live performances were a highlight at center stage to showcase the Performing Arts.
A huge thank you to all of you, for making this beautiful event happen: the LCS teachers and staff, parent and student volunteers, and last, but not least, the Head of School, Ms. Lesley Tait. Saturday's IFD event was a prime example of Lincoln Community Schools' value: THE MORE WE DO TOGETHER, THE MORE WE ACHIEVE.