The Everett Navy Lodge and Navy Exchange celebrated the diversity of their crew by holding their first ever world meal potluck, Aug. 26.

“We came up with the idea of celebrating diversity because we honestly have employees from all over the world,” said Beverly Armstrong, who suggested the idea of the event. “We figured we could have a world meal and have everyone bring in a dish from their ethnic background as a good way to introduce each other to said countries.”

At the event, the employees had trivia and games such as seeing who could say ‘good morning’ in the most languages.  The internet was not a valid source, leaving the only way for associates to find out was to ask their coworkers. 

“It was a way for them to get to know each other better and to actually find out for themselves who came from where,” said Carol Morgan.

“A lot of us had some misconceptions on where certain employees were from,” said Armstong. “We all had stereotypes that we grew up with that had to go away and this was a wonderful step.”

Another game that was played at the world meal was everyone received a piece of paper with a list of words.  Everyone had to find out what all of those words had in common.  Many similarities were discovered but there was a moral behind the game.

“Like the words on that paper, people are alike just as we are different and we should cherish that,” said Armstrong. “Our backgrounds, cultures, it’s who we are and we should celebrate that.”

A world map was posted on the wall that associates placed a dot on to show where they all came from.  It was a way to show on paper how their crew came from all over the world.

“This was a good opportunity for coworkers to enjoy a meal together, and converse about our backgrounds and really connect,” said Kristie Wengren. “It was a nice break from the monotony of our everyday work routine and we had associates ask if we could do this next year.”