Ethnic Fest 2008

Ethnic Fest was a great success for the Baha’is of Pierce County. The two-day festival, held each year at Wright Park during the last full weekend in July, is an outstanding opportunity to let people see us and get to know us. Easily more than 700 people stopped at our two booths during these two days. That’s people who stopped and looked, talked, got a balloon or a race unity bracelet. Our children’s activity booth was a fabulous winner. Children stopped and took the time to string their own race unity bracelets. That gave their parents a chance to visit and to see our banner and appreciate our basic message that all of the religions, coming from the same Source, are essentially one. We gave away 500 race unity bracelets and 500 balloons. The balloons had a simple, appealing message: some read “No Room in My Heart for Prejudice”, while others read “World Citizen”. We handed out hundreds of “No Room in My Heart for Prejudice” stickers to passers by – most of those were Fest-goers who did not really stop and are not counted among the 700-plus visitors. Dozens of adults stopped by to look and to take literature. Many of them took the opportunity to engage in lengthy conversations about religion and spiritual values. Twenty-four visitors signed up to request a follow-up contact from us. What a wonderful opportunity for us to bring our message to new souls! A great big “Thank You!” to the many volunteers who staffed our booths to meet and talk to our visitors, purchased supplies, delivered items, helped with set-up and take-down, said prayers for our success and made balloons and did all of those little things that made for a highly successful opportunity to present Baha’u’llah’s message.

Ethnic Fest is the right venue for us. Let’s do it again next year.

– The Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Tacoma