11/27/2017
Statement Regarding Christmas in Hawaii
Dear Students and Parents/ Guardians,
As some of you may be aware of, Moscrop’s senior leadership class has planned an evening dinner and fundraising night called “Christmas in Hawaii” scheduled for Dec 7th. There have been some concerns raised regarding this event and we hope to address these concerns as well as any misconceptions about this event.
The event will serve three main course dinner options; pork, chicken, & a vegan dish, in order to cater to various student dietary restrictions. The benchmark for success for any leadership event is student engagement. We always want to ensure that we allow for everyone to have an equal opportunity to come out and enjoy the events that we plan and host throughout the year.
There have been some concerns raised about this event in regards to cultural appropriation of Hawaiian and Polynesian culture. First off we would like to clarify that we did not intend to, nor did we attempt to, recreate a traditional Hawaiian Luau. We in Leadership recognize the many components of, as well as the history of the Luau and have never marketed this event as such. Due to an unfortunate miscommunication between students in the class, a costume contest was advertised on a few posters for this event. These advertisements have since been removed but unfortunately the idea has stuck with some students, and for this mistake we sincerely apologize. We had never planned on a costume contest and originally wanted students to dress in Aloha shirts.
The name “Christmas in Hawaii” was chosen due to the fact that we in leadership wanted to do something unusual for our winter event this year. We felt that Christmas dinner in a tropical setting would be an interesting concept and would be a fun juxtaposition between a tropical setting and our usual cold rainy Vancouver winters. Hawaii was decided as our original event location name over other tropical destinations due to the fact that today it is an American state, in which Christmas is celebrated. The event will now be called Christmas in the Tropics
We in leadership understand concerns about the religious aspect of Christmas in a school event. Our class and school are very diverse with non-religious and religious people of many different faiths. Our event celebrates a secular Christmas where we celebrate Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman, decorating Christmas trees, and spending time with the ones we love, as opposed to a biblical Christmas, which celebrates the birth of Christ.
Our event was never intended to be insensitive or disrespectful to anyone. We hope that we have addressed any misconceptions or concerns that you may have had. If you have any concerns that you feel have not been addressed please contact us as we want everyone to be pleased with how this event runs.
Respectfully,
Sr. Leadership
