St. Mark's Heritage Festival

Learning about each other, from each other!

The purpose of the Heritage Festival is to nurture attitudes towards others that recognize the differences and celebrate the similarities of all people. It is our hope that by learning about each other we create a positive environment of understanding and mutual respect in which our children grow and learn to be good citizens of the world.

One of the highlights of our diverse community is our annual Heritage Festival, held in the early spring. This incredible week-long celebration has evolved from the initial project of dedicated parent volunteers and supportive faculty who formed a multi-cultural committee. The committee’s work aimed at nurturing attitudes toward others that recognize the differences and celebrate the similarities of all people. It is our hope that by learning about each other we can create a positive environment of understanding and mutual respect in which our children grow and learn to be good citizens of the world. The current celebration, now led by a committee of faculty, has preserved this initial intent, and created a public forum for acknowledging and celebrating our diversity on a yearly basis. Parents are invited to work with classroom teachers and present individual heritages, traditions, or customs.

We follow a curriculum plan to for each grade level for Heritage Festival, which allows students to enjoy different activities from year to year, instead of repeating projects, like researching their family tree. Ultimately, our goal is to provide an age and developmentally-appropriate celebration of the diversity of our school community.