 We are the City of Fort Worth. We come from everywhere, from different backgrounds, cultures, and religions. We are different ages, races, and ethnicities with different abilities and identities. In a word, we are diverse. I'm Alexandra Thurston. I work in Neighborhood Services and chair the City's Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Our committee works to foster a culture of compassion, open-mindedness, and inclusiveness among City of Fort Worth employees and the community as a whole. Over the last year and a half, our Diversity Matters program has hosted films, TED Talks, panel discussions, music, and other activities. Here's a look back at some of the fun ways we've celebrated our Fort Worth diversity. Diversity Matters. We organized this global potluck lunch to give City of Fort Worth employees a chance to share their culture and their heritage. It rocks and it rolls. It was all very different. They're delicious. Everything is good. Oh, I grabbed everything. I went all the way around and grabbed everything. And I'm liking everything that I picked, believe me. It's all good. I think it's a great event. I love that all this came together to allow us the options to sample one of all these dishes. Diversity Matters. To recognize the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., City employees and Fort Worth residents are signing the Love for Humanity campaign pledge. The goal is to complete 51 acts of kindness or community service by the end of the summer. I really have to brainstorm some things, but for starters, maybe go to the nursing home and read to the patients. I plan to go to the elementary school, to read to the children at the elementary school, and I also plan to work with the high school in their clothes closet. I help seniors. I volunteer at the food bank. I volunteer at Como Academy. I'm going to do an act of kindness by teaching a diabetic class. What will you do? It's not too late to sign the Love for Humanity campaign pledge. Visit Fort Worth Texas dot gov slash human relations. Welcome to the City of Fort Worth's MLK Employee Celebration. I'm honored to share with you the meaning of the King Holiday by Coretta Scott King. The Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday celebrates the life and legacy of a man who brought hope and healing to America. On this holiday, we commemorate the universal unconditional love, forgiveness and non-violence that empowered his revolutionary spirit. It's essential for every organization to embrace diversity and inclusion. This month we have celebration of Asian culture because this is Asian Heritage Month and just show people different aspects of Asian culture, whether it be food. We've got little cute origami and also calligraphy from these two are from the Japanese garden. Sometimes we have different values so if you have this opportunity more often we can share the values with each other. We have very people who work for the City of Fort Worth and it's important for us to come out and celebrate our differences. Our lifestyle is just so accelerated but being out here just for a moment you can forget about the pressures of life. We're at the lovely Fort Worth Botanic Garden inside the Japanese garden today for our diversity and inclusion monthly program. It makes me feel very calm. It has like a soothing effect. You can feel the coolness, the evaporative effect of the large trees. I think the first word that came to my mind was peace, tranquility, relaxation, leave your carers at the door. It's sort of like coming to a sacred area. They gave us a tour as I came in that the Japanese culture they connect with nature and the sounds of the wind, the trees and how we become part of that. It's different, it's interesting and you can open your mind to other things. I noticed the different crafts, the different music, the artistic expressions. It's something that sometimes we're not exposed to only on TV and when you're exposed to it in person it's different. Today's event was for city employees. It's about sharing the American experience. Basically we're all immigrants. We asked them to come in and basically put on the board where they're from, where they're family immigrated from. So we had employees do that so you can see from the board they're from all over the world. It's kind of amazing because I have the opportunity to show where I am from. I'm from Mexico, from Colima. And I can see from all other places where the people is from that maybe I work with so I didn't know. The purpose of the event is to bring us together as employees and make us aware of our differences that we have. So we have some events we're doing to try and raise some funds for the Tehran area food bank, dunk police officers, pie in the face. The diversity is one of the core values of the city and through these events we try and emphasize that into the other employees that we have. My favorite thing about Hispanic culture is food and family and they always go together. All the food, no doubt. Dancing and some of the music. I did some sugar skull painting which is really cool. I also did the tasting contest of the hot sauce. We work in an environment with tons of diverse people from the community. So really embracing and understanding their culture, their background. It really will help us understand and help them. Everything is so good about our culture that I think other people need to know about it. Of course we also have to learn about other communities but I'm just happy that we have lots of people from other communities coming to learn what we have to offer. Texas celebrates more than one Independence Day. June 19th, 1865 was the day news of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation finally reached Texas. The holiday is known as Juneteenth. The official Juneteenth flag is red, white and blue symbolizing the slaves and the descendants were Americans. The design of the Juneteenth flag represents a star of Texas bursting with new freedom throughout the land over a new horizon. This celebration at City Hall also included a look at traditional braids and other hairstyles that women of African descent were once forbidden to wear in this country. Plus more recent hairstyles that reflected the younger generations' pride in their cultural roots. Along with pushing for civil rights, African Americans had a major reawakening of their cultural roots that was reflected in song, fashion and hairstyles and headwear. The African American younger generation of this time period came on the scene with a bold, unapologetic attitude about their Afro-cultural roots. The Juneteenth holiday is observed in most states across the U.S. It celebrates the triumph of the human spirit over slavery, African American freedom and achievement as well as the respect for all cultures. We hope you'll make diversity matters a priority in your work life by participating in our events and activities.