Event Brings International Trip to Town

It’s a trip around the world without the expense, jet lag, TSA trauma or even leaving Hillsborough.  And it’s all for charity.

Hillsborough High School’s annual Shelter from the Storm carnival, set for noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, aims to take residents around the world with its multicultural food, games and presentations from various countries.

The annual event benefits a new charity each year and alternates between local and international charities.  Since this year is an international year, the proceeds from the event will go to the Central Asia Institute, which raises money for education in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan, particularly for girls and women.

“One year we’ll do international and one year, we’ll do domestic,” Christina Lee, of the school’s Interact service club, said.  “This was our year to do an international charity.  The whole thing about ending terrorism is educating women and empowering women.  It also takes time.  It takes several generations of women to trickle down.”

The charity also ties into the school’s curriculum, since students must read founder Greg Mortenson’s book, “Three Cups of Tea”, during their junior year at the school. 

“Basically, they had to read this book and then they can run with that,” Elisabeth Steinbruck, advisor to the Interact Club, said.   “Shelter from the Storm actually works with a charity that ties into what they are doing in class.”

The focus on various countries—the students said most of the world’s major countries are represented and the school’s language honor societies took charge of the countries that speak the languages they represent—permeates the event, with multi cultural food and carnival games.

While admission to the event is free, the games and food cost a small fee, the students said.  Events include traditional carnival games, but also include games that are part of the country’s culture, like henna tattoos at the India booth.

“There are all these things that people can just walk around and they’re all related to the culture,” Jay Thomas, another student organizing the event, said.  “I’m looking forward to the food (because) there’s going to be so many different types of food there.  I also want to see everything be a success.”

Favorite activities, like the jail that allows students pay to imprison their friends or teachers, took a multicultural twist as well—this year, the jail has been dubbed the Chilean Coal Mine, the students said.

In addition to the games, food and other activities, the students enlisted friends, family and other connections to perform traditional entertainment from their culture.  The five to 10 minute presentations include Irish dancers, a cultural fashion show, a re-enactment of Pamplona, Spain’s running of the bulls, a Mardi Gras parade and other performances.

“It’s going to be very exciting throughout the day,” Nora Sbeiti, of the school’s COTIC club, said.  “It’s not a walk-around thing.”

Nora said students recruited many of the performers through either knowing them directly or through other students who knew someone who would perform.

This year, the clubs will hold the carnival on Saturday and the accompanying concert on March 30, a change from prior years.  Typically, the clubs hosted the concert the night before the carnival.

“We felt like Friday night everyone was too busy setting up that they were too tired to come to the carnival,” Christina said.

With many of the world’s country’s represented, various school clubs took the responsibility to fill their booths with information on the countries,

“This year we left a lot of things in the hands of the students,” Jay said.  “We set it up so the students are going to set up the booths.”

“This year, we kind of just let people go,” Christina said.  “Last year, we were more hands-on.”

After several months of work on the festival, the students did say they were nervous about any random crises that could happen before tomorrow.

“As leaders, they have the before-an-event apprehension,” Steinbruck said.  “We want it to be an event that everyone enjoys but we don’t want it to get stale.  Hopefully, each year we will have a different set of events.”