Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month: Diversity Day

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Alyssa M. Akers
  • Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs

In honor of Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, Minot Air Force Base brought a small group together to help celebrate the culture of our Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

A free event, Diversity Day, is scheduled to occur at the Combined Community Complex parking lot May 25 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

During the event, there will be food sampling, performances, a fashion show and kids activities.

“The food options we plan to have come from many different cultures,” said Tech. Sgt. Faleolealofa Fuimaono, 5th Security Forces Squadron NCO-in-charge of standard evaluations and event co-planner for AAPI. “This may include Samoan, Hawaiian, Filipino and Korean cuisine. Our food is donated to us for the event, but we will also have pizza.”

The performances will be cultural dances put on by the newly-formed group, as well as one by a private organization from Minot.

“We have a Filipino group coming from off base,” said Staff Sgt. Kathleen Tupuola, 5th Civil Engineer Squadron engineering journeyman and event co-planner for AAPI. “They’ll be performing a Filipino dance and providing the fashion show.”

“We will also have kid activities,” added Fuimaono. “We want this event to be family friendly, especially since a lot of the kids don’t have the same cultural influences we did growing up.”

While speaking to coworkers and the people in Minot, Fuimaono and Tupuola realized that there are plenty of people uninformed of the month.

“Every culture has a recognized month to share their heritage,” said Fuimaono. “We wanted to share ours, even though we didn’t have a lot of time to plan everything we wanted to do.”

“Hopefully for years to come, future committees will be more aware of all the work it takes to pull off this event and the others that have already passed,” added Tupuola. “If we could do it in a month, then they should be more prepared with the foundation we are laying."