When I was a little girl in Guyana, my family and I would celebrate Easter with our national tradition of flying kites by our city's sea wall.
As I thought about a way to honor and serve the refugee community in my local city, this tradition came back to me as a unique platform for celebrating heritage.
As part of CityLove Providence, an urban service fellowship, I led a partnership with Refugee Dream Center to honor the unique identities and stories of the Refugee Dream Youth.
I led a group of volunteers in designing and executing a kite making workshop with the youth; encouraging everyone to build, decorate, and share a kite with symbolic colors and patterns of their heritage and/or country of origin.
We then took our kites to our local park near the water for a windy kite flying celebration packed with kite racing, food, music, and lots of hula hooping.
