Preview: World of Montgomery Festival on Sunday

The World of Montgomery Festival returns to Wheaton this Sunday afternoon, October 16, celebrating the diversity of Wheaton with international food, crafts and entertainment.

In addition to the international village section from years past, there will also be a health fair and various community service village projects.

These projects, coordinated by the Montgomery County Volunteer Center, will kick off the county’s Community Service Week, October 16-22.

The projects combine crafts with an educational component. For example, a project led by the volunteer center, “1,000 Cranes for Peace,” will inform people about tsunami relief efforts in Japan.

“We’re going to have people fold cranes and write their messages of peace inside,” said Lucy Yost, a coordinator at the volunteer center.

At another table, festival-goers can create banners that say “Welcome” in different languages. The banners will go to different centers and non-profits around Montgomery County.

The World of Montgomery Festival began in 2008 and repeated in 2009, but lack of funding brought a halt in 2010, said Sidney Cooper, the marketing and events manager for the Wheaton Urban District. Because the festival is not part of the Urban District’s budget, the organization is relying on volunteer time and sponsorship to launch the event.

This year will be the first in which the World of Montgomery will be located in the Wheaton Triangle, according to Cooper. In 2008 and 2009, the festivities occurred outside the Charles Gilchrist Center for Cultural Diversity on Price Avenue and Elton Street.

“We started to outgrow the space,” Cooper said.

In 2010 the , which focuses on assisting immigrants, moved into the Mid-County Regional Service Center--right across from the new site of the World of Montgomery.

The festival will take place rain or shine.