Main story: Ruckerfest celebrates students diversity with food and fun
Parents, staff, students developed the idea of a multi-cultural event
Published in the May 3 – May 16, 2017 issue of Gilroy Life
By Marty Cheek
Photo by Marty Cheek
Rucker kindergartner Trinity Wagner, left, and her 4-year-old sister Eden Wagner, present authentic Swedish foods with their grandmother, holding Eden, and mother, Melina Wagner.
Rucker Elementary School’s community of students, parents and educators came together last month for a celebration of the people from other lands who help make up the American story. The annual Ruckerfest fundraiser, held the evening of Friday, April 21, showcased a multi-cultural theme as children and their moms and dads enjoyed foods, games and entertainment from many nations of the world.
Rucker fifth-grader Ryan Garcia, 11, raved about the event and how he was learning about other countries and how the people there might live.
“It’s actually really fun. I’m seeing many different cultures and I’m just having a blast,” he said.
He particularly enjoyed the dancing by fellow students on the school’s outdoor stage as well as the various samplings of international cuisines made by parents and sold under a pop-up tent on the playground.
Photo by Marty Cheek
Rucker Elementary School children do a traditional folk dance from Ukraine.
“I had this teriyaki chicken shish kabob. It was good! Yeah!” he exclaimed.
Gilroy Unified School District Trustee Jaime Rosso enjoyed the school’s festival with his grandsons and thought it helps children better understand that America is stronger when all cultures can be honored together.
“It’s just great any time the community gets out and celebrates the kind of diversity that’s going on at their school site. It’s really a neat thing,” he said. “Especially at times like this, it’s great to have appreciation for everyone that’s in the schools. There’s so much that we share in our diversity that we have a lot to learn from each other.”
Located in the northern city limits of Gilroy, Rucker Elementary School is the oldest school site in the district and has about 580 students of various national heritage, said Principal Christine Anderson. This year’s event was designed to create an atmosphere of inclusion for students to expose them to the diversity of cultural backgrounds among their own classmates, she said.
“We use to do just an auction and have various kinds of games for the kids, but this year we really decided to do more of a multi-cultural event,” she said. “We started looking and found we have Filipino, Vietnamese, Hispanic, people from Peru, we have Hawaiians — we have people from all over. We enlisted kids and parents to come up with either some kind of a game or an activity from other cultures and that’s what they did.”
She credited Rucker’s home and school club for coming up with the program focusing on cultures.
“(Home and school club president) Danielle Marcucci really came up with the idea of doing something different,” Anderson said. “This was her brainstorm and she did an amazing job putting it together.”
Roaming around Ruckerfest was the school’s costumed mascot, Christopher the Lion, hugging children, giving high fives and having photos taken with youngsters. On the stage, students in costumes representing various nations danced for the audience of parents and children. People examined the more than 30 raffle items lined up on a table and placed their tickets in the containers for the drawing. Children had their faces painted or had a temporary tattoo spray-painted on their wrists.
At one booth, the culture of Sweden was presented. Rucker kindergartner Trinity Wagner and her 4-year-old sister Eden, both dressed in traditional Swedish costumes, offered the cuisine of that Scandinavian country for people to sample. Among them were cookies, meatballs and pickled herring.
Their mother, Melina Wagner, said she had the dresses for the girls shipped from Sweden. The family went to the IKEA store in East Palo Alto to get the Swedish food. They also went through boxes to find children’s books written in Swedish, such as Pippi Longstocking.
“I thought it was important to bring Sweden to Ruckerfest, especially after the terrorism attack,” Melina said, referring to the April 8 event in Stockholm where a man drove a truck into a department store, killing four people. “I had already decided before that, but then I was really on it. I wanted them to know that half of them is Swedish and it’ll be forgotten if it’s not brought up.”
A big hit at this year’s Ruckfest was the various kinds of multi-cultural cuisine for purchase by the attendees, Anderson said.
“The food is absolutely fabulous. We have empanadas. We have teriyaki chicken skewers, and Indian samosas, Portuguese sausage, Filipino soft noodles, Vietnamese egg rolls, Mexican pork street taco. It’s a celebration of the taste of America,” she said.
The home and school club for Rucker received a strong level of participation from both parents and teachers in preparing the event, Marcucci said. She has three children at the school.
“It brings everyone together and exposes them to all of the cultures that are in our schools,” she said. “There is a big Spanish (language) culture here, but there is also other cultures. We wanted to bring everyone together in a place where they can all showcase their cultures … This is the first time I know of that any of the schools have done something like this in Gilroy, so I’m really proud of what we accomplished. To see it come together so nicely is exciting.”
Home and school club vice president Tiffany Corvi said she was excited to see so many people attending Ruckerfest, the school’s biggest festival of the year.
“It’s a great way to come out and have fun with your family and eat great foods, enjoy awesome performances, and also bid on some awesome items that our classes have put together,” she said.
To enhance the experience, the school teachers spent time with their classes for a couple of weeks before Ruckerfest working with the kids to learn about different cultures and authentically represent them at the festival, Corvi said.
“Some kids who were not able to make it to the festival, they were at least able to get some exposure in the classroom, whether it was crafts or making a game,” she said. “If they do show up here, they get to see it all come together. It really brings people together in a way we can share our various cultures.”
