Asian culture celebrated

When the spring semester started back in January, twelve students took on the challenge of organizing the second annual Asian Heritage Festival. We set out with the same basic goal as the 2003 festival, which was to create a broad representation of the rich and diverse Asian culture available in the Irving community.

The task of raising funds for a new scholarship and literacy grant was also accepted by the committee. We had fun with our fund-raising efforts, going so far as to dye Phi Theta Kappa member Amanda Christenson’s hair pink once we reached $500.

More than 300 students and Irving residents participated in this year’s festival. Highlights included dances from Cambodia, India and Okinawa. North Lake professor Dr. Henry Su and his Kung Fu students performed the Lion Dance and a collection of martial arts demonstrations. Students put together three fashion shows highlighting Oriental dinner clothing, Indian fashion and an Anime Cosplay.

Local companies set up booths in the cafeteria and K lobby. Exhibitors included handmade Japanese crafts, collectible dolls, origami, Asian travel photos, and henna painting. The booth fees went directly to the scholarship and literacy grant fund. In the old library’s area, the committee had organized a silent auction with more than 50 items, and a charity book sale.

When the day was over, the committee was proud to be $1700 in the positive. Applications for the new Olmstead-Terrill Asian Student Encouragement Scholarship were passed out. The committee also announced that Valley Ranch Branch Library would receive this year’s literacy grant to purchase Asian culture materials for its children‘s department.