Every year since 2009 Baldwin High School has been a host for “Mardi Gras Diversity Day.” The event had been mentioned in a magazine called Promising Practice January, 2013 editorial, along with the Baldwin City Signal and Lawrence Journal-World.

“It is an honor to have other schools follow us and start their own Mardi Gras Diversity Day,” Event Coordinator and Special Education teacher Laura Beaulieu said. “I believe this is a very important tool for kids to learn and have with them for the rest of their lives.”

This year there will be new carnival games and they will also have a hotshot. That will all be going on during the lunch period on Jan 24. Along with arts and crafts, face paintings and a button machine.

“This is my first year participating in Mardi Gras,” junior Danielle Boline said. “I am really looking forward to helping out with the button machine, it should be interesting.”

There is a number of people that help make Mardi Gras happen every year. They help with the carnival, lunch, decorating, and also organizing the speaker.

“We have about 60 volunteers and also 8-10 kids helping from culinary,” Beaulieu said. “And this year our guest speaker Kim Schmitz’s daughter who has down syndrome herself, is with the Down Syndrome Guild of Greater Kansas City.”

Mardi Gras happens once a year every year. It is a day for everyone to come together as one.

“A lot goes into planning and organizing to make Mardi Gras happen,” junior Lacy Barrett. “But when it’s all done it was well worth it.”