Mayor's Diversity Month

September 15 - October 15 is Mayor's Diversity Month here in Anchorage. This celebration is hosted and staffed entirely by my office, the Mayor's Office of Equal Opportunity. These pictures are just a couple of shots from the pinnacle celebration - Mayor's Diversity Awards Dinner. The event was held at the Sheraton Hotel. We sold over 500 tickets to this event, so it was a packed house.

Diversity Month is an opportunity for the community of Anchorage to learn about and appreciate the diverse cultures that call this town home. My office partners with many different community groups to host open houses and workshops throughout the month. The Mayor's Diversity Awards Dinner recognizes those groups and individuals within the community who work to promote diversity each and every day.

Making all of this happen was a lot of work (on the day of the Awards Dinner I was at work from 7:30am - 10:00pm) but I enjoyed every minute of it. It's amazing that a town of this size (280,000) has 97 languages spoken in the school district. Having lived in Denver I thought that I had a good understanding of diversity and different cultures. I find it ironic that it took me moving to the Great White North to figure it out that I didn't have a clue!