RUSD Multicultural Festival celebrates students’ diverse backgrounds

Even though Saturday ended up with the year’s first triple digit temperatures, Redlands Unified School District (RUSD) families showed up for the RUSD Multicultural fair that began at 11 a.m. The event began over twenty years ago and is organized by RUSD Family And Community Engagement team.

In total an estimated 150 people showed up, a number lower than recent years, probably due to the extreme weather.  

The fair was hosted at Citrus Valley High School with cultural vendor booths, food trucks, tables representing different cultures and a sensory room for kids. The sensory room was organized and hosted by Redlands Special Education PTA. “Redlands Unified is very diverse, and we work really hard to represent that diversity,” said Sonya Balingit, RUSD Director of Multilingual Education and Family Engagement, one of the organizers behind the event. As an example she mentioned, “This year we have our 12^th graders earning their state seal bi-literacy which means they are proficient in another language in addition to English in over 19 languages.”

The theme presented at the fair was Cultural Connections.

“We are excited to invite you to the Redlands Unified School District Multicultural Fair,” said Dr. Cherina Betters, chief equity and access administrator at San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools at the opening ceremony.

The Army ROTC of Redlands High School did a presentation of colors, walking the flags in front of the small crowd gathered at the beginning of the event. The national anthem was performed by Lilly from Beattie Middle School, Paige from Kimberly Elementary School recited the Pledge of Allegiance and Chantelle Miller, student from UC Riverside, performed the Black Anthem.

Andrew from Orangewood High School presented the land acknowledgement for the Serrano or Yuhaaviatam people. “This land acknowledgement is a reminder to go beyond acknowledging the land but to honor, respect, take action and learn more about the people,” he said. Lastly, ten flag-bearing students walked through the fair each holding a different flag to the sound of “We are the World” by Michael Jackson.

“The more young people feel valued based on their cultural heritage, their ancestry, the more productive they will be and the more positive student outcomes we will have,” Betters said later. “It does not take away who we are as Americans,” she said. “[The event] says to people that you can come here and live the American dream without losing yourself in the process.”

Child Nutrition Services served free lunch for students at noon, including Domino’s pizza.

“Our highlight every year is our student and community performances,” Balingit said.

Inland Empire Ballet Folklorico perform each year. This time there was also a violin performance, Nigerian dance, guitar and song performance among the entertainment.

Promotional materials about the event this year were, besides English and Spanish, also translated into Vietnamese and Arabic, the third and fourth most used languages in the district. “We decided it’s time to translate our flyers,” Balingit said calling it a growth piece.

Shakir Almosaari, software engineer and parent to a Kingsbury Elementary third grader, hosted a table where he wrote names in Arabic. “We want to show the community different parts of the world,” he said. “It’s cool to show people how their names are written in a different language.” The family have been in the States for 11 years.

Among the many cultural representation-tables, one table displayed Nigerian cultural items, jewelry and houseware put on by a RUSD family with Nigerian roots. Another example was the Redlands High School AVID team who presented the culture of Indonesia, where students could make traditional crowns and learn about the Batak tribe.  

“Some of my responsibilities include supporting family engagement and helping to highlight the diverse cultures within our school district,” said NaChé Thompson, Coordinator of Diversity & Equity of Redlands Unified School District. “The existence of the Multicultural Fair directly supports equity work by creating inclusive spaces where families feel seen, valued, and connected. Each of these are key components of making sure all our students have the resources and opportunities needed to reach their full potential.”

The RUSD Multicultural Fair is open and free to the community. Next year’s event is going to include a student art exhibit component.