School Field Trip & Southeast Regional Festival: www.GAinternationalfolkfair.org.

We pay tribute to (Georgia, USA) Valdosta - Lowndes County's many....

international citizens,
volunteers from Lowndes High School Culture In Action (CIA),
volunteers from Valdosta State University College of Education Friends Become International (FBI),
volunteers from Convergys' Valdosta Call Center.

It's caring souls and warm hearts that make up the region of Valdosta - Lowndes. So many of the community members have been giving generously their time and energy to bring the beauty of diversity to enrich the lives and education here in South Georgia and united us as a community.

We gratefully and proudly salute them!!

Founded in 2000, The Azalea International Folk Fair was created with the clear and definite mission of serving as an invaluable educational resource to augment the social studies curriculum in South Georgia. The images and illustrations portrayed in school textbooks can be limited, abstract, or remote. We envision a project that literally brings the world to our doorsteps and provides concrete expressions of the world's richly diverse traditions, cultures, and arts to supplement school textbooks and lessons.

In 2000, we began with a three-hour program at the Valdosta-Lowndes Public Library called the Chinese Cultural Reflection that allowed students to explore the richness of the world's oldest living civilization and the social customs of today's modern China.

In 2004, we were fortunate enough to form enriching friendships and working partnerships with members of Valdostas Asian communities. United by a spirit of caring and giving, we worked together to create a program entitled the Asian Cultural Experience to tell a broader story of Asian culture.

In 2007, with an unwavering sense of purpose and a strong measure of confidence developed as a result of eight successful years and much valuable experience, we decided to expand the scope of our program to include Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and the rest of the global community. In keeping with our expanded mission, we gave the 2007 event a new title: The Azalea International Folk Fair.

In March of 2008, the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia State Senate both passed resolutions designating the Azalea International Folk Fair as Georgia's official international festival. Obviously, we felt quite honored indeed.

The project contains the following FIVE major productions:

(1) Georgia's Official International Festival: The world literally comes to our doorsteps! The Folk Fair brings to life a variety of museum-like exhibitions, interactive presentations, diverse entertainment, hands-on workshops & traditional wedding ceremonies to highlight the history, geography, traditions, humanities, culture and arts of nations from around the world.

(2) World Culture Folk Dance Competition - Explore the world's rich cultural diversity through colorful folk dances. In 2009, the competition had 32 folk dance teams, from all over the South, representing 18 countries & regions to participate in the 4th annual.

We will continue to invite international talents, not only from the local region, from Georgia, but also from all over the United States.

For the folk dance talents originating in countries outside of America that need to acquire American visas to enter the country will be LIMITED TO "BY INVITATION" ONLY!! Write to project.director@gainternationalfolkfair.org for details and find out how to be listed in the invitation guests.

(3) World Geography: Are You Smarter Than a 7th Grader? which is inspired by and similar to the FOX TV show, "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?", All questions will be aligned with the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) and the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCT) for the Social Studies Curriculum (7th grade and below), but mainly focuses specifically on world geography and cultures in keeping with the fairs international theme.

(4) Youth Invention Exhibition & Presentation project that promotes innovative, creative, critical thinking, develops problems-solving abilities and builds scientific concepts for young scientific talents.

We offer the grand prize of awarding the champions to join U.S.A. team for the "International Exhibition for Young Inventors" held worldwide annually. However, as required by project sponsor, grand awards of overseas trip are limited to k-12 grade students "STUDYING IN THE STATE OF GEORGIA ONLY."

(5) Youth Technology, Mechanical Robot Project, helps to build knowledge in technology and engineering.

New to Fall, 2009, we initiate

(6) Science Challenges 107: in 2010, because the judges for the Folk Dance Competition need ample time to prepare the score sheets, we are introducing this entertaining yet educational challenges between dances. This will be a test of science knowledge and reasoning. All in good fun. Who doesn't like a playful challenge? So be sure to come to be tested.

The project spans over THREE days - Always the 1st weekend of March:

Thursday and Friday are exclusively reserved for middle school students to attend as a field trip. For 2010, school reservation is due by September 15. Interested schools must reserve as soon as possbile.

On Saturday, visitors from all over the South take pleasure in travelling around the world without leaving Georgia.

We hope to add South Georgia a new destination for international talents and artists through this project. The project, indeed, helps to bring our motto of "ONE WORLD ONE SPIRIT" to become a reality.