Volunteer ‘awestruck’ by Folklorama memories

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This article was published 04/08/2015 (3744 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

FOLKLORAMA is on until Aug. 15, and although it was more than 30 years ago, Zaleena Salaam still remembers the first time she attended the festival.

She was about to go into Grade 5, and the first site she visited was the Ukraine-Kyiv Pavilion.

“The colours, the movement on stage, the dancers and the energy they had sticks out in my mind,” said the 49-year-old West St. Paul resident. “I was awestruck.”

Salaam has been hooked on the festival and its two-week celebration of cultures from around the world ever since.

In addition to being a regular attendee, Salaam has volunteered at the festival in a variety of capacities.

For a number of years, she volunteered with the festival’s Indo Caribbean Paradise Pavilion, where she held the role of pavilion ambassador in 2009.

The following year, Salaam represented Folklorama as one of its ambassadors

general. Over the past four years, Salaam has served as a dedicated member of the Folklorama board of directors, as well as a member of the membership committee, finance and audit committee, steering committee and licensing committee.

Her vast experience and commitment to the festival led to her being elected president of Folklorama’s board of directors this past April.

“It’s just an amazing event that happens in our city every year, and I’m happy and honoured to be a part of it,” Salaam said, adding her favourite part of the festival is the buzz it creates and the opportunity it gives Winnipeggers from a variety of backgrounds to showcase their culture.

“The passion people have is just phenomenal.”

Born near Georgetown in the Caribbean country of Guyana, Salaam moved to Winnipeg with her parents and six siblings when she was seven years old.

Today, Salaam is self-employed as a mortgage broker and tries to volunteer as much as she can.

She is a part of the Guyanese Association of Manitoba, she is one of the founding members of the West Indian Toastmasters Club in Manitoba, she sat on the board of directors of the Canadian Cancer Society’s Manitoba chapter, she helps out at the Winnipeg International Children’s Festival and she serves as a tour guide at the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada.

“Once you get involved, once you get bitten by that bug, you certainly don’t get it out of your system easily,” she said.

She adds that volunteers are the heartbeat of the city, and without them, many of the fun activities Winnipeggers enjoy simply wouldn’t happen.

“At Folklorama, we are very proud in saying we are 20,000 volunteers strong,” Salaam said.

For Salaam, the commitment of Folklorama volunteers is one example of the positive attitude of the people of Winnipeg.

It’s one of the things she points to when people ask her what she is doing in Winnipeg, considering she came from a much warmer climate.

“I’m a die-hard Winnipegger,” she said. “It’s home for me, and it will always be home for me.”

“The people are warm,” she added. “Even on the coldest day in Winnipeg, you always see someone with a smile on their face, and I think that says a lot about the people of Winnipeg. Being an immigrant, I don’t know if I’d want to choose anything different.”

If you know a special volunteer, please contact aaron.epp@gmail.com.