ANDERSON — High humidity and temperatures in the 80s weren’t enough to keep 11-year-old Selena Hernandez from showing off her cultural heritage on Saturday.
With a backdrop of several flags from countries spanning the globe, the frills in Selena’s long dress spun as she twirled across the stage at Anderson Town Center with fellow dancers from Anderson Ballet Folklorico de Floricanto.
“I just love to dance for my culture and make people happy,” said Selena, the daughter of Jaime and Leo Hernandez and an East Side Middle School sixth-grader. “It shows people we care.”
Anderson Ballet Folklorico was just one of the groups performing during the Anderson Indiana Main Street’s Super Saturday Cultural Festival. The event also featured disc jockeys from Singapore and Ghana, a mariachi band, and Minyo, a Japanese dance troupe.
Vendors hawked several types of ethnic foods, and arts and crafts. There was a kids’ Olympics, complete with both tricycle and Big Wheel races, and even Anderson Mayor Kris Ockomon got into the act, donning ethnic garb for the festival.
While Selena came to show off her cultural pride, others just happened upon Saturday’s festival. Anderson residents Tony and Sarah New were crossing town when they came upon the barricades along Meridian Street and went to investigate.
“We just tripped across it, really,” Tony said.
The couple decided to look around, and Sarah ended up buying two packets of chicken curry spices from Global Student Solutions, an Anderson-based nonprofit group.
“They have a lot of different stuff from around the world,” said Sarah, a receptionist for Central Indiana Orthopedic.
Keeping with the Cultural Festival’s theme, Global Student Solutions assists international, college-age students living in the United States navigate American culture, according to Elizabeth Sellers, director of counseling. The nonprofit is headquartered at the Anderson Business Incubator, 700 S. Meridian St.
“We’re starting local, but we’re spreading across the U.S.,” Sellers said. “(We are) helping them learn the culture, helping them learn to open bank accounts, helping them learn to do laundry.”
Scott Martin, the group’s director of operations, said Global Student Solutions was currently assisting 12 students, and connected with about another 150. Martin also serves as the president of Anderson International, which partnered with AIMS to put on the Cultural Festival.
“(Anderson International) serves to create a social network for international residents living in Anderson, Ind.,” Martin said.
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August 24, 2008
Festival an opportunity to show off diversity, pride
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