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'We all smile in the same language' (26 photos)

Passport to Unity gets better every year. The seventh annual celebration of Sault Ste. Marie’s increasingly diverse population, organized by the Sault Community Career Centre, was held at the Essar Centre Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Passport to Unity gets better every year.
 
The seventh annual celebration of Sault Ste. Marie’s increasingly diverse population, organized by the Sault Community Career Centre, was held at the Essar Centre Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
 
The event, showcasing food, arts and crafts, and entertainment from many different cultures, was held with the help of Ontario Trillium Fund support and several local sponsors.
 
Sault Community Career Centre Event Specialist Alisha Rosset took a well-deserved break from event management duties Sunday afternoon to speak with SooToday.com.
 
“Passport to Unity went from humble beginnings seven years ago, with about 300 people at the Kiwanis Community Theatre Centre, to get newcomers together and introduce them to community members. A lot of them had just become Canadian citizens.”
 
“From there,” Rosset told us, “Passport to Unity just exploded in popularity.”
 
Sunday’s event marked the fourth year it has been held at the Essar Centre. 

Before 2 p.m., Rosset told us 1,500 ballots for door prizes, along with 3,000 food servings, had already been counted.
 
Three thousand people were expected to attend, though final numbers will not be available for a few days.
 
Admission price was $2.

No food items were more than $3.
 
All proceeds, Rosset said, will go to the Sault Ste. Marie MS Walk, the local Habitat for Humanity ReStore and the Sault Ste. Marie Soup Kitchen Community Centre.
 
“We have an increase in visitors from last year,” Rosset said.
 
“We have an increase in the number of food vendors and volunteers. This year we actually had to have a waiting list for arts and culture vendors. I think it’s getting through that Passport to Unity is part of our community, showing off our cultures, with visitors coming to the city.”
 
Rosset said visitors from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan attended, as well as visitors from Thunder Bay, Sudbury, Wawa and Batchawana.

Rosset told us that ideally, organizers would like to see as much as 20 percent of Passport’s attendees to be tourists.
 
“Our goal is to show tourists what Sault Ste. Marie is all about. Everybody under one roof. We want people from out of town to know you can enjoy things like Indian food in Sault Ste. Marie. We want to be Northern Ontario’s multicultural festival.”
 
Sandra Mongui, who moved from Bogota, Colombia to Sault Ste. Marie in 2007, told us a bit of her story (as well as showing off the Colombian flag and her South American-style cowboy hat).
 
“I am very passionate about diversity. I saw an opportunity here in Sault Ste. Marie.”
 
Mongui, whose postsecondary educational background is in business administration, turned down job offers in Vancouver to reside in our community.
 
A vivacious lady, Mongui told us: “My dream is to help people in this community, help make the community even more vibrant.  We have so many opportunities to grow here, we have to explore them.”
 
“In Bogota it so fast,” Mongui said, adding she enjoys the slower pace of life here.
 
“I love Lake Superior, St. Joseph Island, the colours of the fall leaves, even the snow.”
 
“On November 6, 2007, it was the first time in my life I saw snow. I was walking on Pine Street with my friend from Japan when it started to snow, and I am so passionate about nature, I almost cried, because we have to appreciate the little things. It was beautiful.”
 
SooToday.com also spoke with Uraui Jariwala, who comes from western India.
 
She came to Sault Ste. Marie seven years ago to stay for a brief time with family members, but liked the community so much that she stayed.
 
“The people here are very accepting, wonderful and nice,” Jariwala said.
 
“I like the convenience, the location. I have younger kids, and it’s easy to get to the beach and the park after work. There’s no commuting like in bigger cities.”
 
Jariwala plans to start up her own esthetics shop in a couple of months, where she will offer her clients special services such as “threading,” a way of eyebrow-shaping that is popular in India and the Middle East.
 
“It’s better than waxing; my clients will really enjoy it.”
 
Passport to Unity organizers were inviting public input from those in attendance at Sunday’s event.
 
Shaw’s regional Wi-Fi manager Marko Koskenoja was on hand outside a wooden replica of a red phone booth, the kind seen in England.
 
Called “Speakers’ Corner,” he told us: “You go in the booth and video tape, for free, your thoughts on Passport to Unity or your own cultural stories, just like the way they do at the Speakers’ Corner in London, England, or on CityTV in Toronto. Then it all will go on the Passport to Unity website.”
 
When there is so much conflict and division in the world, events like Passport to Unity are a welcome change.
 
As Alisha Rosset told us: “it’s important to come together and to show there are no barriers between people. We all smile in the same language, we’re all the same, yet we’re different. It’s nice for the community to embrace that.”


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Darren Taylor

About the Author: Darren Taylor

Darren Taylor is a news reporter and photographer in Sault Ste Marie. He regularly covers community events, political announcements and numerous board meetings. With a background in broadcast journalism, Darren has worked in the media since 1996.
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