By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
Combine a taste of Pakistani food with a pinch of Polish food, and toss in a dollop of Spanish food, and that’s the recipe for Diversity Day.
Set for Sunday afternoon at Lawrence High School, the annual event brings together members of different cultures in Lawrence so they can make new friends and learn about each other. The event, which is free, runs from noon to 4 p.m.
Diversity Day is sponsored by the Lawrence Township Human Relations Committee, which was formed following the Sept. 1, 2001 terror attacks. Then-Mayor Doris Weisberg suggested forming a committee to help improve relations between various ethnic groups in order to avoid hate and bias crimes.
The purpose of the Human Relations Committee is to help Lawrence Township celebrate its diversity, said committee co-chairman Teresita Bastides-Heron.
”Join the community as it connects with and celebrates the many ethnic, racial and cultural groups living in town,” Ms. Bastides-Heron said.
The event is important because it gives the community a chance to gather at the Lawrence High School Commons to meet their neighbors who have different heritages from different parts of the world, and to find that these neighbors are not so different, Ms. Bastides-Heron said.
This year’s keynote speaker is Pamela Pruitt, the director of Multi-cultural Affairs at Rider University. She is responsible for promoting unity and diversity among students, faculty and staff through programs, training, celebrations and community outreach.
Ms. Pruitt has an extensive background in media and marketing, including a stint as a songwriter for Motown Records/Jobete Music Company where she wrote songs for Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and the Supremes. She also worked for CBS Television, Warner Bros. Records and the Wall Street Journal Radio Network.
The Diversity Day program will be as diverse as the community, Ms. Bastides-Heron said. The Yuan Yuan Group will offer performances, such as Chinese yo-yo and the Tea Harvest Dancers. There will be a demonstration of Chinese calligraphy and Chinese paper folding.
Kuulei’s Hawaiian Dancers, whose members belong to the Lawrence Senior Center, will perform. A martial arts demonstration by Master Lee of World KM Tae Kwon Do also is on tap.
The Ryan Kilcoyne Irish Dancers will perform a version of the Irish river dance, and Adithi Sridhar will perform a Bollywood dance.
Visitors can sample ethnic foods that range from old-fashioned American food to Indian, Pakistani, Filipino, Italian, Spanish and Polish food, Ms. Bastides-Heron said. Some of the food will be halal, which means it is allowed under Islamic dietary guidelines.
There will be crafts from Algeria, India and South America to help visitors understand those cultures, she said. The Islamic Circle of Mercer County will write visitors’ names in Arabic.
Among the many activities, there will be the popular children’s corner with face-painting.
”Through Diversity Day, we hope to achieve a better Lawrence with much more tolerance for all types of people, regardless of the different social, economic and ethnic backgrounds,” Ms. Bastides-Heron said.

