
Uko Akpanuko
Daily Herald
The Prince Albert YWCA decided to play host to the members of its community, students, staff, and families by organizing a multicultural new year celebration.
The celebration is for people of all nations, age, sex and colour.
“We find the holiday season sometimes is difficult for a family that has newly arrived in Canada and they don’t have friends and family here,” Carolyn Hobden, the Settlement Services Manager of YWCA said. “We decided to have a celebration of ‘New Year Round the World’ where everybody can join together and celebrate the New Year together. Everybody is to bring some popular dishes from foods that you like from your country then we have music from your country and dancing and we all have one big good evening together.”
The celebration date was chosen to coincide with a day where everyone could make it, Hobden said. They wanted to make sure everyone was already back in PA after the Christmas break.
“Lots of our community are like family even though one may be Syria and one maybe from Sudan or somewhere else but altogether we are one big family so this is a time we can all celebrate together,” she said.
The organization had an estimated attendance of about 75 to 100 people. The list include families with babies all the way up to seniors.
“Our clients don’t always have an opportunity to get out with other families because a lot of them live in smaller apartments, so they don’t have a place to have a big gathering,” Hobden said. “This is the time where they can get together in a common place where everybody is used to coming, knows how to get here and we can celebrate together.”
YWCA opened invitations to everyone who wanted to attend as the event will be a come and go multicultural new year celebration that is free and open to the community.
The event featured music and dancing as well as food, fashion, and art from a variety of cultures that are part of the community. If the weather permits there will also be an outdoor fire pit where attendees can roast halal hotdogs and marshmallows.
-with filles from Michael Oleksyn/Daily Herald