Similarities were shared and differences were celebrated at a Community Cultural Celebration in Williams Lake.
“It went well,” said Maryna Muzyka who is a settlement services worker, operations assistant, and office manager at Cariboo Chilcotin Partners for Literacy.
“We didn’t have as many as people as we expected to turn out but we had a warm company of people who came from all over the world and even some Canadians as well.”
This is the first time the Cariboo Chilcotin Partners for Literacy in Williams Lake hosted a community cultural celebration event with the Canadian Mental Health Association
“We want to try to do this over again,” Muzyka said.
“Possibly with CMHA as well, maybe some other services would be involved and we want to make that event even bigger than the last one and try to engage more people.”
The evening featured multicultural trivia, presentations, potluck, and the sharing of life stories including by Muzyka who is originally from Ukraine and immigrated to Canada about 7 years ago.
“Canada is a multicultural country and people come here they don’t really know much about the community or how the things are in Canada,” she said.
“So this is very important for us to let people know there are others like them who first come and they struggle to find people to basically spend the quality time, socialize, communicate, get engaged in community events, and we just need to learn that diversity is beautiful and we have to live together and respect each other’s beliefs.”