TOWAMENCIN- Over the past few decades, the United States and other nations have been targets of numerous mass shootings and terrorist attacks. In a time where the world is at significant unrest, North Penn’s Model UN Club demonstrated the importance of sharing and appreciating other’s differences at the club’s Cultural Celebration, held on Friday, December 11, in the cafeteria.

The Model United Nations Club hosted their 3rd annual cultural celebration, organized by Model UN advisers NPHS social studies teacher Brian Haley and  special education assistant James Bowen. The celebration was a gathering of the various cultural and religious clubs at North Penn to express their differences through food, clothing, and music. Clubs represented included: African-American Awareness Club, Chinese Cultural Club, Christian Club, French Club, German Club, Girl Up, International Friendship Club, Italian Club, Jewish Cultural Club, Korean American Cultural Society, Model UN, Muslim Student Association, and Shakespeare’s Sisters/Women’s Issues.

This international revelry included singing and dancing performances and poetry recitals by different students and club members.

“It was fun. There were some things I could’ve done better but I think I came out alright,” says senior Shawn Lee, a member of the Korean American Cultural Society, in regards to his dance performance.

There was also a table tennis tournament between the clubs and a pieing competition where students had the opportunity to pie their favorite teachers. Pieing participants included Kyle Berger, Jon Fluck, and Brendon Mostert, with James Bowen acting as a demonstrator. There was even some teacher on teacher pieing action when Janet Kratz’s name was drawn to pie Mostert.

Senior and president of Model UN, Niketa Kulkarni, expressed that her favorite part of the celebration was “everyone coming together, having a good time and exploring different cultures and diversity.”

Although the celebration only lasted for about 2 hours, time seemed of no relevance as my fellow classmates were constantly smiling, laughing, and enjoying time with their friends.

“It’s just a great venue where everybody can get together inside the school atmosphere and get to know each other a little bit better, a little bit deeper . . . maybe have the conversations where you get to know everybody’s diversity and take that time just to relish in it and revere where you come from and the cultures that you belong to and for everybody to share that amongst each other,” said Bowen.

“It was a great turn out, we had a great crowd. We expanded it to all the clubs this year [and] we had a super turn out,” said Haley. “In today’s political climate, this particular event speaks volumes about what America is. Donald Trump says we need to start singling people out, [well] Donald Trump should’ve been here to watch all these different groups come together today and have a wonderful time sharing each other’s cultures. That’s what America should be all about!”