IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 4-25-06 CONTACT: MARIA TRILLO 538-6526
SILVER CITY-- Día del Niño (Day of the Child) will be celebrated on Saturday, April 29, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Santa Clara Catholic Church Parish Hall. In the village proclamation declaring Saturday “The Day of the Child” in Santa Clara, it stated “the parishioners of the Santa Clara Catholic Church, the faculty at Western New Mexico University, and the teachers of the Cobre Consolidated School District have joined to celebrate the beauty, the talent and the gift of having children in our lives.”
The event will feature games, storybook and art displays, a Young Author’s Open Microphone featuring Spanish storybooks prepared by WNMU students and bilingual storybooks prepared by students from the Cobre School District, a jumping balloon, science and math displays by students, arts and crafts, face-painting, music and piñatas.
The free event is geared towards pre-kindergarten children through high school students. El Grito Headstart will donate books to the first 50 children. A free lunch will be provided to all attendees. The menu will be prepared by Bill Parrish, a student in Professor Patricia Cano’s Spanish class.
Dan Mastry, a WNMU student, will sing “God Bless the Child.” Professor Trillo’s Spanish 202 class will participate in the celebration as part of a class project and their books will be display. In addition, two folklorico dance groups from the Cobre School district will be performing. Cobre High School students are also scheduled to sing and perform live theatre.
Maria Vigil is directing the live theater bilingual performances. Anne Marie Elder, Fine Arts Center Theatre manager and SOE Professor Manuel Bustamante will be working with the Cobre School District and Maria Vigil of the Teatro Bilingue de Santa Clara for a public performance in December.
The children have already been on the WNMU campus to visit Professor Gloria Maya’s art studio and she showed them how to make paper that will be the book covers for some of the storybooks on display, said WNMU Spanish Professor Maria Trillo.
“WNMU School of Education Professor Trini Tolar and the SOE started the initiative and we joined forces with the Santa Clara church. We are interested in celebrating children. This type of celebration occurs regularly in Mexico and we patterned this celebration after what Professor Tolar has observed in Mexico,” said Professor Trillo. “Father Roberto Becerra has spearheaded the whole movement to have the faculty at WNMU be directly involved in the community projects at the Santa Clara Catholic Church with the hopes that we can collectively develop the village of Santa Clara.”
The celebration is co-sponsored by Teatro Bilingüe Juvenil de Santa Clara, Santa Clara parishioners, WNMU faculty, and the Santa Clara Cobre School district teachers. For further information, call 538-6526 or 537-3713.
-30-