Children ran around with brightly colored passports as they learned about around 40 different countries and cultures represented at their school.

The seventh annual Petrova Multicultural Night brought out families with a range of heritages, who created posters with information about their homelands, shared stories from places they are interested in and cooked traditional food to share with almost 300 attendees.

Some students had parents from the countries they featured. Some had ancestors from those countries. One student who loves The Beatles, featured Liverpool, England on his board, and another student featured nearby Quebec City.

Event co-organizers Temnit Muldowney and Jesse Jakobe said celebrating all the cultures at their school is something they’ve always felt strongly about.

Edythe Sampson, 5, plays West African drums along with Badenyah Drum and Dance at the Petrova Elementary School Multicultural Night on Thursday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

“Jesse and I started talking about how we wanted our students to see how many unique perspectives and how many unique cultures make up our school community,” Muldowney, a fourth-grade teacher said.

They said the event has grown every year.

Neima Cecunjanin, 6, excitedly pointed all over her poster of Montenegro, where her dad was born.

“These are the beaches, cities, mountains and also there’s a rainforest, and this is how you say all the words and these are the drinks, coffee, traditional dancing. Would you like any of the foods?” she said.

Her favorite food was the koulourakia — crunchy, crumbly, sesame seed-topped cookies.

Jayce Kalilec, 9, shows off a poster board on his Mohawk heritage at the Petrova Elementary School Multicultural Night on Thursday. (Provided photo — Sara Shatraw)

On the board were photos of mountain ranges — much larger than the Adirondacks.

“‘Montenegro’ means ‘Black Mountain,'” the board said. “It has plenty!”

The board also had a couple of common phrases — like “Zdravo” which means “Hello,” or “Hvala” meaning “Thank You.”

This year, the deaf community was also represented, with Gemini Randolph, an American Sign Language teacher from Petrova Middle School, setting up a booth.

Muldowney said that, on most days, people walk the school hallways and don’t realize the diversity of their peers. They wanted to create a night for students to teach each other about their family history.

The Clayton family — April, Fara, Kalilah, Arek and Paul show off their spread of Peruvian food, facts and photos at the Petrova Elementary School Multicultural Night on Thursday. Fara is from Peru and her family were all decked out in Peru football jerseys. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

“Students are the best teachers to each other,” Muldowney said.

Jakobe, a speech-language pathologist at the school, said it is a way to connect home and school, to get parents involved.

“The kids talk about it for several weeks leading up to it. The energy around it has just really become contagious,” Jakobe said.

It gives them a chance to talk about culture and heritage at home, too.

Muldowney said, this year, a family told them it brought them closer even before the night began. It gave them a rare chance to talk about their culture as they researched and created their poster.

Belma Cecunjanin, 11, gives Annika Parker, 10, a leaf tattoo at the Petrova Elementary School Multicultural Night on Thursday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Fara Clayton from Peru, in South America, said she was excited to bring her country’s traditional dishes to her kids’ school in Saranac Lake — noodles with soy sauce, onions, green beans and chicken, and a steak dish with rice, fries, tomatoes, onions and peppers.

She cooks meals like this often but said for this event, she got help from the Peruvian restaurant Sol de Oro in Lake Placid.

Clayton’s husband Paul said the hardest part is that the quality of the seafood is harder to get in the Adirondacks compared to Peru on the coast of the South Pacific Ocean.

This was Fara’s first time at the Petrova Multicultural Night.

“That’s why I put so much effort,” she said, pointing to her family’s elaborate board filled with Peruvian history, statistics, flags and food.

Jeremiah Burnett, a junior in the culinary program at Paul Smith’s College, mixes up a bowl of pickled carrots to be placed on a spicy noodle salad from Hong Kong, along with braised beef and toasted sesame seeds at the Petrova Elementary School Multicultural Night on Thursday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

“Part of my country is, if you are going to do something, you have to do it right,” Fara said.

The event was partially funded by the district’s 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant.

Free books on places around the world were available to students through funding from the New York State United Teachers Saranac Lake Teacher’s Association unions.

Jakobe said several families from Montenegro, with around 10 children, put on a dance celebration in one corner of the gym.

“The kids were sort of embarrassed at first, but then they immediately got lost in it,” Jakobe said.

For a minute at the end of the night, their traditional Montenegrin music blended with the West African drums from the other corner.

James Vennie-Vollrath, 6, and Anya Vennie-Vollrath, 8, show off their passports at the Petrova Elementary School Multicultural Night on Thursday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Theresa Hartford and Dian Oury Bah from Badenyah Drum and Dance fill the gym with West African drums beats at the Petrova Elementary School Multicultural Night on Thursday. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)