To celebrate the diverse community that underlies Commonwealth Elementary, the annual World Culture Night was hosted by the Parent Teacher Association  on Thursday, March 6, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. at the school.

“ We want to showcase all the kids’ cultures and have them take pride in where they come from and what their backgrounds are,” organizer and PTA member Sana Kassam said. “So, we have World Culture Night every year with a lot of activities, booths from different countries, and the kids actually get up and perform as well, like different dances or songs from their culture that they really take pride in.”

 To create the different booths and activities, Kassam and the PTA reached out to community members. Many parents volunteered items from their countries and brought customs, snacks, and self-made posters to share with attendees.

“It piggybacks on the Open House,” PTA president Andy Berghoefer said. “So it's a beautiful moment because a lot of parents are on campus, and they come to visit the classrooms and check out what their children are working on.”

Berghoefer, dressed like a cowboy in a wide-brimmed hat, described the event as one of the two pillars of a broader occasion, the other being in-class sessions where a whole school day was dedicated to students learning about a randomly assigned country.

“The kids learn something about a country they’ve never been to,” Berghoefer said. They assemble fun facts about different categories and present them. That’s parent-led and all their presentations are hung up in the school afterward.”

From the booths alone, 15 countries were represented. Among them was the Chinese booth, where attendees could have their name translated into Chinese, identify their Shu Xiang (representative Chinese Zodiac animal), and practice writing in Mao Bi Zi, a traditional form of calligraphy. Another popular stop was the Iran Booth, showing their Haft-Sin setup, consisting of seven items meant to symbolize the virtue of life, the unique being a goldfish bowl to symbolize progress.

“Haft-Sin is on the first day of spring, which is our New Year,” booth runner Nazy Dizajiyan said. “So, this is very lucky for us because in the next two weeks, we have our New Year, and we all have a table with seven items set up in our houses” just like other cultures set up decorations during holidays and festive times.

 Other items laid out included: frosted biscuits laid on a large circular disk; Lavashak, a popular Iranian roll-up that’s both sour and sweet; and kids' books about Haft-Sin. There were also several student-run booths, like the French and the Egyptian booths.

 “We want to have people understand French culture through gastronomy, which is food culture, so we have crêpes,” volunteer Mohammad Shah said. “They’re using Nutella and common American products to customize the crêpes, so it’s a blend of American and French culture.”

In addition to the cultural booths, several PTA sponsors came to promote their businesses while providing hands-on activities and demonstrations.

 “I have a booth set up here for STEMtree, and it's just a showcase that we offer - math, science, coding, robotics, and electrical engineering,” booth runner Ivin Koshy said. “I have a Van de Graaff which creates electricity and static that I can show to kids, and I also have a LEGO robotics build, that's basically a car that has a color sensor on it. I have a green brick and a red brick, so the green brick makes the car go, the red brick makes it stop.”

Across the room, Budokan Karate Dojo hosted karate demonstrations on the stage, with performers in white karate uniforms, simulating a fight and presenting basic techniques.

The hanging lanterns were bought and funded by Eye Level of Riverstone, then assembled by the PTA and teachers. It has been a tradition for the past three years, according to Booth Runner Rehmat Mehdi.

“Every lantern has a question and when the student answers the question correctly, they get the lantern,” Mehdi said. “From what I have seen, the questions are about every country in the world, all the architecture of the world…so it’s educational.”

 Another booth relating to paper creations was the Folding For Good Booth, where volunteers taught attendees to use origami paper to make cranes and fortune-tellers.

“The Commonwealth is known for all the extra activities we do, like World Culture Night, and we need a lot of support to put on these activities,” PTA member Lauri Lacy said.

 In order to support such events, Lacy said it’s important for more parents to join the PTA and provide a helping hand, especially since many PTA members will be moving into middle school as their kids move to upper-grade levels.

“Let me just say we're trying to have maybe the most colorful place in Sugar Land tonight here on campus, and the more people dress up, the more fun it is,” Berghoefer said. “We try to be as diverse as possible, because I think at the end of the day, our school is very diverse, and that’s what unites us, our diversity.”