Photos by Ralph Freso / Slideshow
They lifted poled flags, thrust in the air to the beat of the band’s drumline. They draped them over their shoulders. They shimmied with them like folk dancers. El Salvador. Israel. Mexico. Chili. Ethiopia. …
“Milwaukee!” a student yelled.
Hey, everyone comes from somewhere.
And on this Tuesday night across the Grand Canyon University campus, someone belonged with everybody.
The Unity Walk was special this year, coming at a raucous time in our country, three weeks before the election, and celebrating GCU’s 75 years of unity.
It started with issuing flags at the Backyard space in the middle of campus before a procession of students – 100 yards long and 10 shoulder-to-shoulder people wide – snaked through campus to a drumbeat, ending the night bathed in lights that shot to the sky on the Quad in worship at the Gathering.
“In politics we get divided, but for the most part we get along pretty well,” said student Emmanuel Corral, who runs track and cross country for GCU and is from Tucson.
“I’m Mexican, but they ran out of the flags. I’m wearing Thailand,” he said, the flag draped around his shoulders. “(Unity is) hopefully everyone getting along. Smiling, having a good time, like they are now.”
Athletic teams, Spirit Programs’ teams, ROTC and other campus groups joined the Multicultural Office and Associated Students of GCU’s show of togetherness.
“As Christians we are called to love, to show love, so what better way than to show love in community?” said Zach Broussely, manager of the Multicultural Office, who added that more than 70 countries and 40 tribes are represented among the student body. “We are all human and all created in God’s image. We want to show we are all unified.”
They were American born and raised, honoring their grandparents from Europe, or children remembering their birthplace in Chili, such as Taya Zimmerman, clutching the flag of a place she has never returned to since early childhood.
There were students who met for the first time after they saw a flag.
Hiyaw Ertiro is a native of Ethiopia and had the flag draped about his shoulders. Kaiya Noe was excited to show him a photograph. Though her ancestry is Polish, she had been volunteering at a neighborhood program to teach refugees English and befriended a woman from Ethiopia.
“It was cool to share a meal with her and meet her family and realize you aren’t so different,” Noe said. “She loves to cook, and she loves to play piano. I love to cook and play piano.”
The photo was of injera, and Ertiro smiled at the sourdough flatbread, “an Ethiopian staple.”
“We can always see our differences of cultures and religions and ideas but ultimately we are all just people,” Noe said. “We can choose to look at our differences or look at what draws us together.”
So they marched, down Colter Street and between the residence halls, students appearing at windows and balconies to watch the parade.
Maria Pimentel pumped her El Salvador flag on a pole skyward to the beat. It reminded her of home.
“It’s people coming together, having different stories,” she said, walking next to her roommate Teani Kaluhikaua, from Hawaii, thrusting Hawaii’s unique Union Jack flag.
“I represent Hawaii, even though we are just a state, we have our own culture,” she said. “It’s cool to be unified with people from different countries. I learned about El Salvador; she is very close to family and her food, pupusas. I love pupusas.”
Past the outdoor track, runners stopping running to look, past Prescott Field, a Spike Ball player thrust a Lopes Up. The group stopped at the Gathering, set up for Spiritual Life’s special occasion on the Quad.
A square stage was ringed by long tubes of fluorescent lights, and at its center were several stage lights shooting beams of light skyward.
University Pastor Dr. Tim Griffin cited Psalm 133: “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.”
He prayed: “God, we thank you for all the students You have brought to campus this year. We pray that we lift each other, that we would be a blessing to one another …”
Stage fog bathed with colored lights arose in beams. The stage was surrounded by students on all sides who filled half of the Quad with raised arms, listening to the angelic voice of Peyton Peterson and the Worship team sing “How Great Thou Art,” a familiar hymn that, fitting to the night, has Swedish origins.
We all came from somewhere, and students have been gathering at GCU for 75 years to sing about it together.
“Every few years we have an election. You think about our country and some of the things that may bubble up that may cause division or disunity,” said Erik Nelsen, director of Spiritual Life. “Our unity is in Jesus, and we have to go to Him with all things.
”We are going to take a few minutes now to pray for our country, especially in these next few weeks. Pray with those around you for humility and wisdom, that as believers we praise the Lord in our country and on behalf of our leaders and those we do life with.”
They huddled in groups of two or three, five and six, and held hands to pray.
Some shook hands after the prayer to introduce themselves – to tell who they were and where they were from – before they united here.
Grand Canyon University senior writer Mike Kilen can be reached at [email protected]
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