The Cupertino Rotary Club held its annual Silicon Valley Fall Festival at Memorial Park on Saturday, Sept. 13 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m, with the goal of celebrating local cultural diversity. The event features companies and vendors from all over the Bay Area, including robotics teams from each FUHSD school who showcase their projects, and numerous activities for children, including inflatable slides and a petting zoo.
Kalpana Aroda, the Cultural Rotarian of the program, is part of the committee that organized and held the passport event, and as people visited more cultures, they could earn various stamps and eventually receive a small prize. She explains how being a part of the cultural activities helps spread the importance of diversity and the unity of cultures.
“When students are here, they get to see a lot of other cultures and what is special about them,” Aroda said. “It’s something really dear to me because the youth are going to take all the things that they’re learning now to the next generation, and we are giving them a platform to get exposed to not only other cultures, but also academics through the vendors that are here today.”
Meanwhile, other vendors’ booths at the festival were represented by multiple organizations, for example, the Santa Clara Public Health Department, Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program and Silicon Valley Youth, who contribute towards children’s health, and spread awareness about FUHSD schools’ low budget. The festival also included multiple dance and music performances, featuring dance and music studios from around Cupertino. For instance, the co-founder of Silk Road Preservation Collective, Baiga Li, performed alongside her co-founder Han Mei Chen and fellow dancers in Mongolian dances that Li herself choreographed.
“What we realized is that there’s a lot of healing power in this traditional art form,” Chen said. “Some of us are full-time moms, engineers and attorneys. We’re all from various backgrounds, but we work together really well. Sometimes it’s hard for us to remember the moves, but if someone is good at a specific dance, they become the teacher for all of us, so it makes everything quite fun. While the pressure was there, I think we definitely did it in the end.”
Chen believes that their performance went smoothly and hopes to participate in more opportunities to showcase Mongolian culture to more people. She wishes to show others that even smaller cultures deserve to be seen, and how this festival is the perfect chance to demonstrate their abilities and hard work — and to have others acknowledge their efforts.
“We’re very glad we have the opportunity to serve and perform for the community,” Chen said. “We want people to remember these art forms and to benefit from them. It’s just so precious.”
