By Cristina Oxtra

Communications Coordinator

Every May, the United States celebrates Asian-Pacific Heritage Month to honor the countless Asian-Pacific Islanders who have made or make significant contributions to the nation and the world. This year’s theme is “Lighting the Past, Present and Future.”

This is the first time the Shakopee School District is having a celebration of this magnitude in honor of Asian-Pacific Heritage Month.

Media centers will feature books related to Asian cultures, while all eight school cafeterias will offer an Asian lunch special every Wednesday in May.

Deb Ross, food service director, said food is a great way to celebrate cultures.

“It’s fun to see and taste what other cultures eat,” she said. “Hopefully, the students will be encouraged by their teachers to try the new food items at lunch.”

Ross hopes everyone who tries the Asian dishes will discover that “the food from other areas of the world is really good!”

At Shakopee High School, members of the school’s Diversity Task Force will present a fashion show of traditional Asian costumes May 14 in the school commons during all three lunch hours, from 11:50 a.m. to 1:12 p.m.

At Eagle Creek Elementary, teacher Jane Velde and her fifth-grade class, along with paraprofessional Wendy Petersen, will conduct a donation drive through May 27 for new and gently used pots, pans and kitchenware. The items will be given to an Edina charity that will provide them to people in need in Asia.

Petersen said it is important to celebrate all cultures.

“I am delighted that our school is doing a group effort to help out the less fortunate people in our world. I hope that the students learn that we are all a big family – the human race,” Petersen said. “We do not have to be powerful and rich to make a difference. We can make a difference if we all do our share and help one. Just imagine if we all helped just one!”

In June 1977, Rep. Frank Horton of New York and Rep. Norman Mineta of California introduced a House resolution that called upon the president to proclaim the first 10 days of May as Asian-Pacific Heritage Week. The following month, Sen. Daniel Inouye and Sen. Spark Matsunaga introduced a similar bill in the Senate. Both bills passed. On Oct. 5, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed a Joint Resolution designating the annual celebration.

In May 1990, President George H.W. Bush designated May as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the U.S. on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants.

Cristina Oxtra is communications coordinator for the Shakopee School District. She can be reached at (952) 496-5036 or coxtra@shakopee.k12.mn.us.