Taste, Talk, and Togetherness: CES Families Share Culture, Build Community

From figs to folk dances, a school-wide celebration turns heritage into connection.

BAR HARBOR—Anil Aktürk watched as the students tried the dried fruit.

“What do you think it is?” he asked.

“Papaya?” one boy answered.

“Good guess. Good guess. But no.”

“Mango?”

“Kiwi?”

The slices were figs, dried and tasty and from Turkey, which is Anil’s heritage. He offered up another treat and another, to another student after another, explaining, talking, sharing, and smiling the entire time. There was pride there in Anil and so much kindness, but something else. Anil was sharing his culture, his family’s food, his daughter’s heritage.

He was not alone.

At another table, Sophie served up crepes from France. There was origami, cake pop creating, Chinese calligraphy, dumpling dashes, rattles, dancing, the tastes and sounds of Ashkenazi culture, Argentina, the Ukraine and so many more. It was a celebration of not just the students of Conners Emerson, but of all the different places their families came from.

Now they are here.

A community.

A thriving one.

“Over the past three years our school has been working on building connections. After the pandemic ended, our school took a long look at how we wanted to reopen our schools and to reconnect on a variety of levels,” said Vice Principal Michael Fournier. “The first year our school focused on building strong connections between student and student. In year two, our school focused on building and deepening our staff to staff connections. And this year, we have worked on connecting in a richer way with our community. Tonight’s event was proposed by a staff member early on in the year. The CES Leadership Team has been planning and organizing this event since the fall.”

The Conners Emerson administration talks about building community on multiple levels at almost every school board meeting. Their newsletter not only talks about academics, events, the functionalities that keep the school going, the children and staff engaged, the students and staff learning, but it also always celebrates the people of the school, what they’ve done, who they are. And it also celebrates fun.

“This. Is. So. Cute,” one girl said, nudging the girl next to her as they filled out their passports, a token to show all the countries they’d visited.

A family walking through the parking lot ohhed and ahhed at the new Conners Emerson building, steel girders making connections and a foundation.

“Look at it, Dad. Look!”

“Wow, I see it buddy.”

“Isn’t it cool?”

“It’s so cool.”

And just like that. There was something else to be proud of. Conners Emerson Principal Dr. Heather Weir Webster knows how valuable community is, how friendships and connections are built, piece by piece, event by event, interaction by interaction. And the best communities? They are the ones that you are proud of each other and your selves, of where you’ve come from, but also right where you are and where you are going.

Fournier knows it, too.

“Watching people engage with one another on such an authentic and caring level was out of this world. It was beautiful. Stories, recipes, song and dance, faraway landscapes, and incredible foods were shared and celebrated. I think the amount of laughter and smiles proved how wonderful a night this was. There was also just so much pride. People were provided a space to show something special about who they were. This night exceeded my expectations,” Fournier said.

He thanked the CES Leadership team for planning this event for the better part of this school year.

“I want to thank our dedicated custodial staff for helping make this event possible with their hard work setting up and breaking down,” he said. “I have want to thank our families who came out to celebrate our diverse CES family. And of course, this night could not have happened if it weren’t for our amazingly generous family presenters and sharers. It was a night to remember!”

It was.

It was more than that, too, though. It was connection. It was wow-worthy moments. It was a litany of “that is so cool,” and “this tastes so good,” and “thank yous.”

“It is so easy to move through our very busy days without fully knowing much about one another,” Fournier said. “Tonight brought our families, with diverse and amazing backgrounds, together to share and to learn about who we are as people. And from this, we collectively walk away a bit stronger knowing that we took time out of our busy lives to acknowledge and celebrate our beautiful differences. Tonight was about both creating and affirming how vitally important community is.”

Photos: Carrie Jones/Bar Harbor Story

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