{"id":135407,"date":"2024-09-24T19:56:31","date_gmt":"2024-09-24T23:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=135407"},"modified":"2024-09-24T19:56:31","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T23:56:31","slug":"ymca-celebrates-welcoming-week-with-international-potluck-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=135407","title":{"rendered":"YMCA CELEBRATES WELCOMING WEEK WITH INTERNATIONAL POTLUCK EVENT"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over 200 people attended River Crossing YMCA\u2019s annual International Welcoming Week Potluck at the Easton branch on Friday Sept. 20. (photo courtesy of River Crossing YMCA)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

EASTON – Over 200 people attended River Crossing YMCA\u2019s annual Welcoming Week International Potluck at the Easton branch on Friday, September 20. The event featured foods and entertainment from over 16 nations, including contributions from Y members and vendors from around the community.<\/p>\n

Welcoming Week is an initiative of Welcoming America, https:\/\/welcomingamerica.org\/initiatives\/welcoming-week<\/a>, which takes place every year the first full week in September. As a partner of Welcoming America, YMCAs across the U.S. reach out to their local immigrant communities to ensure they know they have a safe, welcoming place at the Y.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was so pleasant to gather at the YMCA and celebrate our community and its colorful cultural aspect and diversity,\u201d said YMCA member Yaser Khalifa. \u201cThe evening was full of conversations, getting to know new neighbors, tasting lovely dishes from all-over the world and enjoying the dancing activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cultures represented by members and local food vendors included China, Iraq, Israel, Puerto Rico, Nigeria, Turkey, Peru, Lebanon, Egypt, Italy, Austria, India, Greece, the U.S., Thailand and France. Local restaurants Daddy\u2019s Place and Clove Indian Restaurant donated trays of food for the event as well. Latin and Zumba dancing was led by YMCA instructors Sam Bonilla and Melike Ayan, respectively, and Carmen Garrison capped off the evening with interactive belly dancing. Also represented at the potluck were Project Easton and Easton\u2019s Cops n\u2019 Kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Y community in Easton is so rich with international culture, it was an obvious choice for holding our first Welcoming Week potluck as River Crossing YMCA,\u201d explained Sarah Wassel, senior program director of the Easton branch and one of the organizers of the event. \u201cWe are so proud to have been able to bring everyone together to demonstrate how the YMCA is really here for all of us.\u201d Greater Valley YMCA joined with YMCA of Bucks and Hunterdon Counties in July to become River Crossing YMCA.<\/p>\n

Welcoming Week lobby displays and activities took place September 13-20 at River Crossing YMCA branches in Allentown, Bethlehem, Doylestown, Easton, Fairless Hills, Nazareth, Newtown, Quakertown, Slate Belt (Pen Argyl), Suburban North (Catasauqua) and Warminster, in PA, and at the Deer Path branch in Flemington, NJ. Each of these YMCA Welcome Centers featured family<\/p>\n

activities and a large world map where members and visitors were invited to share their national or international place of origin.<\/p>\n

River Crossing YMCA<\/a> (formerly YMCA of Bucks and Hunterdon Counties and Greater Valley YMCA) is a charitable, nonprofit organization committed to strengthening communities through membership and programs that foster youth development, healthy living and social responsibility for all. Annually, the Y serves over 142,000 members and participants at its 12 member branches, 13 early childhood centers, 20 summer camp locations and 37 school age child care programs. River Crossing YMCA provides over $12 million of community impact annually in the form of financial assistance to individuals and families in need and free programming for veterans, cancer survivors, older adults and more. To learn more visit ymcarivercrossing.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Left: Taiba Salloum (right) from the Easton Y answers a member\u2019s questions about Welcoming Week at the International Potluck on Friday Sept. 20. (photo courtesy of River Crossing YMCA)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Over 100 dishes representing 16 nations were donated by members, guests and restaurants from around the Lehigh Valley to support River Crossing YMCA\u2019s annual International Welcoming Week Potluck at the Easton branch on Friday Sept.<\/p>\n

20. (photo courtesy of River Crossing YMCA)<\/p>\n

Carmen Garrison, belly dancing instructor from the Bethlehem branch of River Crossing YMCA performed to cap off the International Welcoming Week Potluck at the Easton branch on Friday Sept. 20. (Photo courtesy of River Crossing YMCA)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nMichael Reisman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over 200 people attended River Crossing YMCA\u2019s annual International Welcoming Week Potluck at the Easton branch on Friday Sept. 20. (photo courtesy of River Crossing YMCA) EASTON – Over 200 … Continue reading YMCA CELEBRATES WELCOMING WEEK WITH INTERNATIONAL POTLUCK EVENT<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135412,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5718,69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-easton","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/y-lunch.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135407"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/135412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=135407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=135407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}