The Hmong Club brought another Diversity Week at UW-Platteville to a close with their Hmong Thanksgiving.

Tickets for the event were free because of funding from the Segregated University Fee Allocation Commission.

“When you have a program like this, you expect to learn all sorts of different things,” Kong Thao, Hmong Club president, said. “We really wanna show that we are the same but it’s just our perspectives that are different.”

“Hmong Thanksgiving is traditionally held every year on the Friday before the real Thanksgiving,” Pusaporn Tabrizi, Hmong Club adviser, said. “It’s a great chance to show an aspect of our culture to everyone that shows up.”

Last year’s event was a performance showing a traditional Hmong wedding, in both its preparation and its production.

“We pick a new theme each year to shake things up,” Porsia Vang, Hmong Club secretary, said. “This year our theme was ‘music through the generations.’”

The Hmong Club students spent a lot of time preparing for the event and started working on it before school began.

“The students organize everything from selling tickets to cooking foods, organizing entertainment to finding a place to hold the event and making sure everything runs smoothly,” Thao said. “I feel that people come every year so they can learn new aspects of our culture and new people come to see what all the excitement is all about.”

When Vang came to Platteville, she didn’t know any other Asian people on campus, but she didn’t mind, she said. “People are totally accepting of the differences once they are made aware that they exist, we just need to keep students informed.”

“Here in Platteville, it’s really good because even if they don’t know about our culture, they aren’t negative about it,” Thao said. “People seem generally interested in the Hmong culture.”