On Sunday, August 29th, we once again tabled behalf of [nap_names id=”FIRM-NAME-1″], this time in the Cleveland Cultural Gardens for the 75th anniversary of One World Day, an event that we have consistently sponsored over the years.
Ms. Sheila Murphy Crawford, past President of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens Federation, put it beautifully when she described One World Day as “a great celebration of all the countries of the world as we exchange music, entertainment, food, ideas and friendship.”
The day’s proceedings began with a Naturalization Ceremony in which Magistrate Judge Jonathan D. Greenberg administered the Oath of Allegiance to twenty worthy candidates for U.S. citizenship. Particularly poignant was a woman named Eugenia who immigrated to the United States from Ukraine and became a United States citizen at age eighty-eight.
Soon afterwards, the Parade of Flags took place, and it was emceed by Ms. Crawford along with Mr. Chris Tanaka (Channel 19 anchor), Ms. Danielle Wiggins (Channel 3 morning anchor), Ms. Tracy Carloss (Channel 5 weekend anchor) and Ms. Maia Belay (Channel 8 special reporter) who offered commentary regarding all the countries involved in the parade.
As Ms. Crawford said, “the parade of flags has a rich history in One World Day. It is a wonderful showcase of the pageantry and diversity of all the nationalities that make Cleveland the best location in the nation.”
We were very fortunate to have our table located almost directly across the street from the Centennial Peace Plaza on Martin Luther King Jr. where the Naturalization Ceremony and all the festivities took place.
Included in our section were tables belonging to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, Global Cleveland, and Clevelandpeople.com. Regarding the latter, we were pleased that Ms. Bridget Marok and her young daughter, ElizabethMary, were on hand to assist our friend, Mr. Dan Hanson.
To be sure, all of us were blessed to have Mr. Rohit Shastry, from the vendor committee, on hand to attend to our needs throughout the day.
Unfortunately, we had to shutdown early due to the rain but not before we were entertained by Cleveland City Councilperson Kevin Conwell and his band, The Footprints, and heard some excellent speeches by such local dignitaries as Mr. Ronn Richard, President and CEO of the Cleveland Foundation, and Mr. Chris Ronayne, President of University Circle Inc.
Mr. Richards reminded us that in this time, one of deep divisions, the Cleveland Cultural Gardens provides common ground for all groups to come together, and Mr. Ronayne praised Cleveland for being a city of “dynamic, diverse people from all over the world.”
