With the theme “Promoting peace in a multi-cultural school,” the celebration witnessed the gathering of close to 700 students who waved the flags of the U.N.’s 192 member countries.
This is the sixth year that WSR celebrated U.N. Day and the first time it was held with Cultural Day.
WSR principal Jeannette Villagomez, in her opening remarks, said this year’s theme was a reminder that there’s a need to live peacefully with one another.
WSR, she added, is a multi-cultural and a peacebuilder school that subscribes to the United Nations principles.
According to Rebecca Flores, school counselor and coordinator of the event, U.N. Day on campus included a Parade of Nation with some students dressed in traditional costumes while fourth graders sang the United Nations song.
The students converged at the center of the playground and formed a peace circle, simulating the PeaceBuilders program logo.
The gathering of students in a circle symbolized unity and oneness, in keeping with the U.N. vision of peace and harmony among nations, Flores said.
“We at WSR stands as one big family, one team, united and committed to promoting peace and spreading it in our island-community,” she said. “Each part of the piece needs to be in place to complete the puzzle, in the same way that each person needs to be peaceful to spread peacebuilding. For peace starts from within — you have to have peace in your heart for you to be able to share it.”
During the celebration, the manamko’ performed six traditional dances.
Students, for their part, performed song and dance numbers, cheers, poem interpretations and choral reading.
The Chamorro and Carolinian Language Heritage Studies performed a Chamorro and Carolinian song numbers.
The special education/autism department led by its chairman, Peter Mendiola, demonstrated Brazilian jiujitsu, a form of martial arts based on the principles of balance and leverage and a system of manipulating the body for self-defense.
Performing with Mendiola was Nathan Flores, a senior student of Saipan Southern High School.
Mendiola reminded the WSR students that jiujitsu is a kind of self-defense that only done with proper training and supervision.
Julie Kapileo, a Chamorro and Carolinian Language Heritage Studies teacher, explained the importance of jointly celebrating U.N. Day with Cultural Day.
She said both events support peaceful understanding and acceptance of each other’s cultures.
Kapileo at the same time thanked the manamko’ and the Historic Preservation Office staff for their presentations during the week preceding Cultural Day.
The presentations included demonstrations in Chamorro and Carolinian arts and crafts like mwar making, basket weaving, ancient Chamolinian traditions and practices, singing and dancing, and listening to oral history.
