Rye Middle School students attended a “diversity trade show” on May 4 designed to show students that while we’re all human, we’re all different in some way, too.

 

 

By Sarah Varney

 

Rye Middle School students attended a “diversity trade show” on May 4 designed to show students that while we’re all human, we’re all different in some way, too.

 

To illustrate the message, students were able to visit various booths with Braille books, a Japanese culture quiz, information on amputee athletes, and an exhibit from the Mission For Girls. The event was organized by RMS Youth Advocate Sara Braun.

 

The Rye Women’s Interfaith Committee educated students on the four different houses of worship in the city and different items used by each religious group. The group was called in to help stamp out some anti-Semitic acts making the rounds at RMS.

 

Kim O’Connor, co-president of the RMS PTO, invited the Women’s Interfaith Committee and “they immediately agreed to give a presentation about the different faiths,” she said.

 

The group displayed a menorah, a chalice, a cross, and a catechism book used in a matching game for the kids. “It was a great hit,” said Janet Meyers, an Interfaith Committee mkember.

 

A school assembly after the exhibition featured several students reading essays about personal experiences with overcoming intolerance. “It was incredibly moving. One girl talked about how her grandparents had escaped from the Nazis by bargaining with the Gestapo,” O’Connor said. “They gave up a factory and some other things in return for the release of the family.”