On February 27th, Conestoga Valley High School’s POWER club hosted an event they called “Unity Day”. This was held during 5th block and was intended to spread awareness more positively, opposed to having a student walkout. During Unity Day, clubs in CV, including the Valley Heat Step Team, Drumline.
Along with handwritten student poems. The photo above shows the officers of People Welcoming And Empowering Race (POWER) explaining Unity Day to students.
Valley Heat Step Team performed at Unity Day with an amazing performance that showcased their skills. Sophomore Niurlisebeth Heredia said that “unity” to her means “That no one is being judged and no matter what skin color or gender, everyone’s together.”
The photo above shows the officers of POWER performing with the Valley Heat Step Team. Sophomore Acacia Pagono Green said, “I wanted to join PoWER for my voice to be heard”. Green also said unity means to her “People coming together in hard times to stand for what’s right.” She said the prep for Unity Day was “was very busy and was sometimes very stressful, but it was very fun because we were doing something that’s going to bring everyone together.” Her favorite part was “when I got to speak with my president Shaina Le just at the very end to close everything out.”
The CV Drumline put on an amazing performance, presenting their skills, including a solo from senior Alastair Shea. Victor Maina (12) the President of POWER, said: “I joined POWER because I believe that it can help increase the diversity in this school and raise awareness of the different cultures.”
Niurlisebeth Heredia reads an original poem. She said, “I wanted to speak out about what’s happening in the nation, and I felt like I wanted to say where I stood with it and wanted to make people feel included.” She added, “What inspired the poem, honestly, not much, it just came from the heart, I just started writing and it just kind of flowed as I went.” She wanted people to take from her poem “that even though we’re going through a really dark time right now, you should just surround yourself with positive people.”
Senior Victor Maina reads a poem. He commented, “Unity Day initially was supposed to be a type of walkout, but then we met with the administration and principal and we came up with a compromise where the school could support it and that there wouldn’t be any type of punishments.” He added, “We ended up going with a day where everyone could come to the auditorium, experience the different types of clubs that we have, and the music and the vibes.” He stated that the influence for his poem was ”To spread awareness of everybody; it’s not just about race, but it’s also about social construct and social norms. I also wanted to draw awareness to the 13 different genocides happening all over the world.”
A CV student writes on a poster where students were able to leave a handprint along with their name. Along the outer edge of the auditorium, students were able to sign any of the several banners to symbolize unity.
The officers of PoWER distributed several signs for students to hold during the assembly. Even though each sign displayed different wording, they all shared a message of unity. Unity Day brought together students and teachers of different nationalities. Unity Day would not have been possible if it weren’t for Mrs. Casey Banh. In addition to her teaching Forensics, she is also the faculty advisor of POWER, allowing her to have a major role in organizing the event.
