Schoharie CSD students explored different cultures and experiences through “We are Schoharie Fest” today.
The district-wide event involved a wide range of activities, storytelling, music, art and, of course, food. Coordinated by Teacher Carrie Styles, the event brought in a variety of special guests.
“The ‘We are Schoharie Fest’ is a day to learn, celebrate and honor the diversity all around us,” Styles said. “Students had opportunities featuring aspects of different cultures found within our greater community.”
Students explored aspects of Seneca, Australian, Greek, Jamaican, Japanese, and Puerto Rican cultures, just to name a few. Students will also be discovering different aspects of Schoharie County history with visits by presenters from The Old Stone Fort. College students from SUNY Cobleskill participated in a panel and talked about their experiences being away from home and independent. Representatives from Living Resources did a pop-up gallery and art demonstrations.
A key component of the day was a real-time virtual meeting with author and Holocaust survivor Marion Blumenthal Lazan for students in grade 5 through 12. Lazan’s memoir, “Four Perfect Pebbles: A Holocaust Story,” details the struggles of her mother, father and brother, who spent 6 ½ years in refugee, transit and prison camps during World War II. They survived the camps, although her father passed away a few weeks after liberation. Lazan’s family eventually made it to the United States, which they had tried to escape to before the Nazis occupied the Netherlands.
“Mine is a story that Anne Frank might have told if she survived,” Lazan said.
While Lazan’s account detailed the horrors of the Holocaust at a personal level, it was also a story of courage, hope and the will to survive.
She urged students to recognize that everyone needs their own survival skills and techniques.
“No one is spared adversity. No one is spared hardship,” she said.
Lazan also stressed the importance of going to school, which she was not able to do until she was a teenager.
“Do not take your educational opportunities for granted,” she urged the students.
Lazan closed by urging students to share her story, noting that those who have first-hand experiences from the Holocaust will soon be gone. The reason: to prevent it from ever happening again.