Bal Vihar at Multicutural Fair in St Louis

ST LOUIS: The Center for Indian Cultural Education, Bal Vihar of St. Louis participated in the Premier Charter School (PCS) annual multicultural fair on May 18 to expose 4th to 8th graders to diversity.

It was very well attended as more than 400 children and adults and they actively participated in a variety of activities that Bal Vihar of St. Louis offered to the students with diverse backgrounds.

The multicultural fair was a well organized affair with the focus on exposing children to a variety of aspects of different culture. Bal Vihar of St. Louis set up several different stations. Students with teachers in a group of 20 to 30 children went to different stations and learned about Indian culture. Each station was managed by Bal Vihar representatives as follows:

 Indian colorful clothing and jewelry presented by Bharati Patel and Meena Patel
 Indian Culture, Hinduism and philosophy of life discussed by Arunaben Tailor
 Indian Musical Instruments and classical music explained by Nayna Rana
 Yoga, Meditation and Asanas led by Sudhir Brahmbhatt along with Premier School yoga teacher Jenny Moniz
 Performance of South Indian dances was complimented by Varsha Kutchi giving a taste of South Indian classical dances displaying the
different hand and leg movements,
 Annapurna Kutchi helping the students dress up in ‘ghagaras’ for girls and ‘kurta’ and ‘pagadi’ for boys to take pictures while Gayathri
Seetharaman took a lead in explaining the Indian script and writing the students’ names in ‘Devanagari’ language on cards.

The fun filled event was the first time exposure of Indian culture to the students of PCS founded in 2000 under the name St. Louis Charter School. The school mission is to provide individualized education rich in academics and character while its vision is to create an academic environment where each child is educated per its needs to reach success in life.

Center for Indian Cultural Education – Bal Vihar of St. Louis, a non-profit organization, since its inception in 1992 has been serving the Metro St. Louis Indian community. The primary focus of this organization is to provide Indian cultural education to students age 5-18, its application and integration with the global multicultural and multifaceted society.

Raj Iyer