A group of Nampa High Leadership students help to celebrate Human Rights Day on January 17th. With the help of the Nampa Civic Center, they exceeded in connecting the whole city of Nampa. What first started as a community outreach assignment in class, later turned into a whole celebration for the city. The class was seperated in four groups all assinged to help a non profit organization in the city. The Nampa Civic center group consisted of Herendira Gongora, Mei Zhou, Gabriela Gudino, Karen Gudino, and Carolina Albor. These 5 students marketed and produced an event for Human Rights Day, with the help of Patricia Walker White, Nampa Civic Center arts coordinator. The event was free to make it easier for the community to attend. Area middle and high school students were invited to share their opinions, feelings and ideas about what the definition of human rights is in their world and to give a voice to the importance of human and civil rights in any medium they chose. They could draw a picture or create visual artwork, write a poem or eassy, make a movie, creat a photo-essay. Elementary-age students were given a coloring page with the outline of a person and asked to "Color Your World" and also had questions that said "how are we different, "how are we the same?" At the event we honored the contest winners to read their winning enteries. We also hung up ALL the turned in coloring dolls and displayed them at the event which were about more than 1,000 of them. We had a lot on entertainment as well throughout the event. We opened the event with a fellow leadership student Crystal Jones, by singing "Man in the Mirror." Mayor Tom Dale led the Pledge of Allegiance. Then we had the Centennial Hip Hop Patriots- 4th and 5th grade students, who entertained the crowed by signing several songs. Then we had Ballet Folklorico, Irish Dance Idaho, and Red River Pow Wow Association which all performed and helped us remember how diverse our community is. Sam Darbin closed the event by singing "Thankful." After planning for 4 months, we produced an event we can be proud of and hope to start a tradition with. Being different isn't a bad thing. Having a lot of diversity is a good thing and we should treasure that.
