Community and Culture Day – set for noon to 3:45 p.m. at
Rider University’s Bart Luedeke Student Center – aims to encourage people from different countries and cultures to make new friends, said Rich McLaughlin, chairman of the Human Relations Committee.
By:Lea Kahn Staff Writer
Hosting a community day is a de rigeur occasion for most municipalities. But Lawrence Township is putting a twist on the community day idea Saturday instead of focusing on the various organizations in town, this one is focused on the various ethnic and cultural groups in town.
Community and Culture Day set for noon to 3:45 p.m. at Rider University’s Bart Luedeke Student Center aims to encourage people from different countries and cultures to make new friends, said Rich McLaughlin, chairman of the Human Relations Committee.
A full afternoon of events, including sharing ethnic foods, music and dancing, is on tap, Mr. McLaughlin said. Township Historian Robert Immordino has been invited to offer an outline of the history of the influx of immigrants into Lawrence, he said.
"Many people in Lawrence may not realize that most of the new people moving into town are of different cultures, so we see Community and Culture Day as a way to reach out to those newer members of the Lawrence community and accelerate their integration," Mr. McLaughlin said.
The Human Relations Committee grew out of the days following the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Mr. McLaughlin said. Then-Mayor Doris Weisberg suggested forming the committee to help improve relations between various ethnic groups in order to avoid hate and bias crimes, he said.
Mr. McLaughlin said the committee has taken "a pro-active approach" to connect and strengthen relationships between ethnic and cultural groups Indians, Asians, Poles and Latinos to avoid possible clashes. One of those efforts is Community and Culture Day.
"The goal of Community and Culture Day is to say, ‘I met some new, interesting people who are outside of my social group and we have more in common than we realized," he said.
Saturday afternoon’s event will begin with food and mingling from noon to about 1 p.m., Mr. McLaughlin said. Then, people will sort out into groups for some "ice-breaker" activities.
"Maybe they will sort into groups that have the same birth month," he said. "Maybe I’ll ask each person to find another person in the group, and ask that person what he or she likes best about living in Lawrence."
Through these exercises and the conversations that follow, participants will find out what they have in common and what is unique to each ethnic or cultural group, he said.
Entertainment includes exhibitions of Hawaiian dancing, Irish dancing and Indian dancing, as well as Irish music and ancient Andean music, Mr. McLaughlin said.
"Lawrence is not designed for ‘community’ there is no downtown or common gathering place where people can come out of their homes and catch up so we have to provide opportunities for people to come together and start relationship building," he said.

