After months of planning, the West Linn High School (WLHS) and Wilsonville High School (WVHS) Affinity Clubs’ Multicultural Night finally took place on April 10th. Hosted in the West Linn High School Main Gym, students, families, and community members from across the district attended the event. Maryam Al-Medyadi, junior, is the Associated Student Body Equity and Diversity Commissioner. Al-Medyadi not only participated in the event, but has been helping to plan Multicultural Night since the school year began.

“I honestly could not have asked for a better night,” Al-Medyadi said. “I was so astonished by how many people showed up, because I know that was something that I was kind of worried about, because it was the first one that we’ve ever had. But so many people showed up, and especially [of different] ages. There [were] elderly, there [were] families of people who are performing, and there [were] also siblings and little kids. What was really nice is [that] so many people just seem to be enjoying their time and being happy. And so that was really, really rewarding to see.”

The Affinity Clubs each had a booth lined up against the gym walls where students were displaying their culture through food, art projects, and games. Lily Abozaid, sophomore, is a leader of West Linn’s Muslim Student Union (MSU) and a member of Middle Eastern Student Union, and baked Biscoff and s’mores-flavored cookies to give away at the MSU booth during the event.

“I wanted to share my culture with others and represent myself and share [that] with everybody else today,” Abozaid said. “[I wanted to share] whatever makes people happy; like food, art, and music.”

Other booths hosted by Affinity Clubs included plenty of food, art, and music, like samosas from the South Asian Cultural Association, and the Kachina dolls that students could create with the help of the Indigenous Student Union. However, Affinity Clubs were not the only ones with booths, as community organizations were also present to teach students about various cultures. Jesse Hendryx-Dobson, Education Manager at Oregon Black Pioneers, is part of one such organization present to support Multicultural Night.

“As an outsider to this community, it’s really cool to see how happy everyone is, genuinely happy and excited to be here,” Hendryx-Dobson said. “When they were doing walk-throughs earlier, everyone was really being upbeat and positive. You know, life is hard all the time, and so whenever we can take a moment to just enjoy each other, I think [it] is really magical.”

As the event reached all across the district, it also caught the attention of other Affinity student leaders in the district. Phoenix Nguyen and Jordyn Stahl, juniors at Riverside High School (RHS), the president and vice-president of RHS’s Multicultural Student Union (MCSU), respectively, came to learn from other students after not making a formal appearance at this year’s Multicultural Night.

“A big reason [we are] here is that we’re also trying to talk to everybody, see how we could be a part of this next year, which is really cool,” Nguyen said. “We’re talking to all the vendors and people in charge, and know what we can do next year to get Riverside here.”

MCSU was formed at RHS after students were unable to get independent Affinity Clubs off the ground, mostly due to membership numbers. Now, the club celebrates mainly Asian and Jewish holidays, but aims to become more involved in the community over time, starting with this year’s Multicultural Night.

“Freshman year, we established [the] Asian Culture Club, but unfortunately, our Asian student population declined,” Stahl said. “Many kids moved out of state, so we decided to change directions and go to ‘multicultural,’ and we’re really happy we could be here to just see all the other student unions and get a hand in all the different cultures that we could explore.”

One way that students at WLHS, WVHS, and even from beyond the district were involved in the festivities was through the cultural fashion show at Multicultural Night. Merob Gudina, freshman, performed in the group of Ethiopian dancers from WLHS, WVHS and beyond.

“I came to this event with a bunch of other people from my culture, I’m representing Ethiopian culture,” Gudina said. “My friends asked me to [perform], and it seemed fun.”

Aside from the fashion show, other performances took place throughout the evening, including the Jade Dance Team, Youth Music Project Mariachi Band, WLHS’s Asian and Pacific Islander club, and a performance by Gar Yuen, a lion-dancer at 72 years old.

“I really think that students are the future of America,” Yuen said. “And we have to have diversity, because everyone has talents.”

Watching all of these performances was more than just students and families; it included administrators, district officials, and other leaders in the community who enjoyed the experience alongside students.

“It was really nice that the superintendent came, and a bunch of people who were part of the school district’s Diversity and Equity Committee came. So that was really nice,” Al-Medyadi said. “I think just one standout experience was seeing people just enjoy their time and have fun, and just be somewhere new that wasn’t a thing before [now].”

Al-Medyadi is already thinking about next year after the success of this event, and the ways that WLHS can continue to evolve the community in its cultural celebration.

“I think one really cool thing would be having elementary schoolers come, and maybe even as a field trip, or something like that,” Al-Medyadi said. “And definitely involving Riverside more, because we tried to involve them, but they’re not really set up yet. So expanding it to Riverside would be really good, and just having it be an annual thing district-wide. I think now that it’s happened, people are much more willing to be a participant and engage in the event.”