Contact: Bruce Conley, News Information Director
Phone: (605) 274-5526
Fax: (605) 274-4903
e-mail: bruce_conley@augie.edu
www.augie.edu

April 19, 2004

Augustana, O'Gorman Sponsoring Cultural Fun Festival

SIOUX FALLS - The world language departments of Augustana College and O'Gorman High School present the Cultural Fun Festival on Friday, April 23, from 9:00-11:30 a.m. and 12:00-2:30 p.m. in the Elmen Center. The event is for Sioux Falls Catholic and public school students ranging from kindergarten through eighth grade (K-8).

The purpose of the event is to promote the study of and awareness and importance of world languages and cultures among elementary and middle school students. Augustana and O'Gorman foreign language teachers and students have organized the event, and more than 1,000 elementary and middle school students will participate.

Student ambassadors from Augustana and O'Gorman will greet the children at their busses. Each child will be issued a passport. Forty booths in the Elmen Center offer participants to learn about the languages and cultures of Brazil, France, Germany, India, Mexico, Norway, Spain, and the ancient Roman world (Latin).

Activities include the running of the bulls, piñata making, folk dances, puppet shows, fashion shows, Mardi Gras mask making, learning songs in foreign languages, and sampling ethnic foods. In addition, the German activities will all be focused on well-known Grimm fairytales. O'Gorman students have constructed an entire fairy tale village including six real houses, each of which offers an activity connected to these fairy tales. Augustana and O'Gorman students wearing appropriate costumes are the "village inhabitants."

Sponsors of the German Fairy Tale Village are Graham Automotive, Vern Eide Motorcars, Sioux Valley Hospital, and Wells Fargo.