photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Ethan Lin, front, poses at the Taiwan booth with, from left, Estelle Chang, Sandy Lin, Jeff Lin, Alicia Lin and Kurt Hong. The small boys behind the table are Marty Hong, in green, and Luka Hong, in orange. The group attended International Night Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School.

We’re all from somewhere, and every somewhere is fascinating.

That was the message of Thursday’s International Night, an annual event at Sunflower Elementary School organized by Molly Soukup and Valisha Buselt, who run the English as a Second Language program at the school on Inverness Drive.

It’s a message that second-grader Ethan Lin gleefully embraced as he helped his family serve pork dumplings and sweet sun cakes, a classic pastry from Taiwan, to families of his fellow students.

Asked if he was enjoying the crowd and the food, he had no time for an interview, simply nodding enthusiastically before racing off to join his friends as they bounced around Sunflower’s gym, chattering away, sampling food and collecting stickers from the two dozen booths representing school families from all over the world.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Ethan Lin, left, gets a passport sticker at the Palestine booth Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night.

To encourage Sunflower families to explore one another’s cultures — to “travel the world,” as Soukup and Buselt put it — the kids received “passports” at the door and were encouraged to collect flag stickers at each booth.

“We were looking to involve our ESL families as a way for them to shine, but we also wanted to have this be a whole school event where people of all cultures, whether they were born in the United States or not, could take a moment to reflect on their heritage and own culture,” said Soukup, noting that the event had started out small in 2016 but had grown into a much larger affair.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Ousmane Diop, of Senegal, from left, Patricia Fanjaud and Ibrahima Diop share a dish of mafé Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night.

Delicious food — a reliable bridge between humans — was a principal attraction. Ousmane Diop’s family offered a huge platter of mafé, a Senegalese peanut stew, while Edith Cordova and her kids doled out Mexican tamales and agua de pina. Across the room, Saima Ahmed and Nida Salim served up a biryani — a rice dish popular in Pakistan — with rose water and tea, and Marjory Calliste and her crew plated up some traditional Haitian “patties,” which are savory puff pastries stuffed with various meats.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Edith Cordova and her family from Mexico served tamales Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night.

photo by: Kim callahan/Journal-World

A variety of dishes, including patties, back left, from Haiti are pictured Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night.

Eric Buselt and his daughters sat before an array of almond cookies in traditional Polish pottery, while Sunflower art teacher Caitlin DeFilippo, who had spent a few years living in Spain, introduced curious kids to tortilla de patatas, a popular kind of potato omelet.

Food wasn’t the only draw, though, as families browsed informational posters with fun facts — for example, “Jambo” is how to say hello in Kenya, and 68 Indigenous languages are spoken in Mexico.

Some families, like the Rills, shared cultural traditions, like bindis from India, which are tiny ornaments worn between the eyebrows.

Fifth-grader Kira Copeland, at first a bit shy, broke out into a grin after Anjali Kansal-Rill affixed a pink bindi to her forehead.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Anjali Kansal-Rill affixes a bindi to the brow of fifth-grader Kira Copeland Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night.

Diop and his wife, Patricia Fanjaud, shared with visitors the meaning of “teranga,” a hospitality practice in Senegal of placing supreme value on guests.

“If you have only one bed in your home, and there is a guest, you sleep on the floor and give the bed to your guest,” Diop said.

But the night was also a place for more somber conversations, as a poster in a child’s uneven handwriting noted that “Palestine is at war with Israel.” Another poster showed the ever-diminishing extent of Palestinian territory — beginning in 1914, when the child’s great-grandfather was born, through subsequent generations to today.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Kaitlin Roberts is pictured with her kids Mohammad, from left, Layla and Israa at the Palestine booth Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night.

Kaitlin Roberts, whose husband is Palestinian and who has three children at Sunflower Elementary — Mohammad, Layla and Israa — served pita chips, olives and za’atar, a Middle Eastern spice mixture containing thyme, sesame and sumac, depending on the local tradition.

Roberts explained to visitors at her booth that the mixture is kind of the “peanut butter and jelly” for kids in Palestine, who, she added, are now facing a catastrophic food crisis as Israel continues to target Gaza nearly five months after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

International Night is just one of several programs that Sunflower Elementary is engaged in to get people to think about their own origins and those of others in their community.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Students at Sunflower Elementary School make paper dolls to display their cultural heritage. The dolls hang in the hallways.

One activity that Soukup and Buselt find especially useful in promoting conversations about diversity in students’ homes involves sharing individual information, via paper dolls, with everyone at Sunflower, not just the families traditionally thought of as “international.”

“We send out a cultural doll to every student in the school so that they can talk to their families and figure out where their cultural heritage is,” Buselt said, and then the students return the dolls to the school, where they are displayed in the hallways with their relevant flags.

Students in third through fifth grade also do an in-depth research project on cultures besides their own, Buselt said, as a way for them to exercise their curiosity about the world and to broaden their understanding about how people in different parts of the globe live.

International Night is a culmination — and celebration — of all those endeavors.

“We definitely thought it was a successful event,” said Soukup, who estimated that 250 to 300 people had attended. “These families are so excited to share their culture and interact with families and students. It is an event that highlights our similarities as well as differences,” and, she emphasized, it is for all of us: “We’re all from somewhere.”

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Hundreds of people attended Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night on Thursday, Feb. 29.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Sunflower Elementary art teacher Caitlin DeFilippo talks to a visitor at the Spain booth Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The Rill family poses with a pot of dal Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night. From left are Brent Rill, Amara Rill and Anjali Kansal-Rill.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Coral Glatz, 4, gets a Spain sticker for her “passport” Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The Agini family, from Kenya — Evans, from left, Mareesha, Ruth and Meysan — pose with their dish of pilau Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

An informational poster about Kenya is pictured Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night.

photo by: Kim Callahn/Journal-World

Soeurett Joseph, from left, Marjory Calliste, Dave Elias and Gregory Arboite pose by the Haiti booth Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Second-grader Zaim Abdullah, whose father is from Bangladesh, shows off his “passport” Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Belkasim Khameiss, left, and Heba Almasri share treats from Libya Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

A poster about Mexico, Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Eric Buselt and kids Maddie, from left, and Eva Lea serve Polish almond cookies Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Nida Salim, from left, kindergartner Faiqa, and Saima Ahmed display foods from Pakistan Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

A poster showing Palestinian territory over time, Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night.

photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

Flags of the world are displayed Thursday, Feb. 29, at Sunflower Elementary School’s International Night.