Cashmere High School event celebrates moms, migrant families

CASHMERE – The Cashmere High School Parent Advisory Committee will host a Mother's Day celebration for migrant families on Friday, May 10 from 6-7:30 p.m. at the High School.

The Parent Advisory Committee or PAC is made up of elected or selected migrant parents who work with the Migrant Education Program staff to ensure quality education for migrant children.

Cashmere High School Principal Craig MacKenzie works with the PAC and also serves as director for the district's migrant and bilingual programs.

The event will celebrate mothers, families and graduating migrant students. There will be dinner featuring pupusas, live music, presentation of poems written for moms and a graduation ceremony for migrant graduates, MacKenzie said.

"We figured that we would do a combination of family dinner and opportunity for the kids to read their poems to their moms," he said. "It's kind of a Mother's Day gift."

MacKenzie said that for many PAC events, they want to invite everyone to be a part of it so that migrants who are not established in the area can become a part of the community and so that community members can understand some of the issues that migrants face. However, this particular event is only for Cashmere migrant families.

"I think this event is really more about focusing on those families, bringing those families together, and providing a forum for the students to celebrate their moms in a structured way," he said. "What we did is we created a template for a Mother's Day poem for each of the grade levels, for high school kids, for middle school kids, and for elementary school kids. And the teachers in the schools are working with those students to develop those poems so that they can express their feelings for their moms." 

The evening will also include a graduation ceremony for migrant students who have earned their diplomas this year.

"I think we have twelve migrant students who are earning their diplomas this year," he said. "And so we want to recognize and celebrate them as a part of our ceremony as well."

The event will also highlight some community resources available to families, in particular Cashmere Library, which has collaborated with our PAC in multiple events in the past year.

"Just try to let families know what are some things that are happening in terms of supports this summer in particular, and we're always trying to provide access to ideas about post-secondary opportunities when kids graduate as well," he said. 

"So we have invited some of our community partners as participants, but the real focus is going to be on families on taking time to celebrate not only moms but also the good work that our students have been doing this year," he said. "And then really just kind of close out our year with a positive, talking about some things that are going to be happening this summer and also elevating how important it's going to be for us to continue to get together frequently as a migrant community to support each other as we go into the next school year." 

Quinn Propst: 509-731-3590 or quinn@ward.media.