About 300 students, faculty and staff members filed into Beasley Coliseum Thursday to attend the 17th annual Building Bridges event.

The event, Breaking Down Walls and Building Bridges, is put on by the Association of Pacific and Asian Women as a way to close the gap between cultures in WSU’s community, APAW co-chair Kellie Ouye said.

“I’m really proud of how far Building Bridges came, even from last year to this year,” she said. “I’m really happy about the amount of clubs that participated – the fact that everyone seemed to have good feedback from it.” Ouye said people seemed to enjoy the event. She said she was proud about the turnout and how new members were willing to pitch in and help.

The event started with a dance from the Native American Women’s Association. The dancers included both adults and children who were dressed in traditional Native American clothing. The Pacific Islanders Club performed a Tahitian dance. Hui Hau’oli ‘O Hawai’i, the Filipino American Student Association and the African Friendship Association all performed cultural dances as well.

The Japan Club’s taiko drummers played too, and the Alpha Nu Multicultural Sorority performed a skit on stereotyping and hate crimes.

Next, the YWCA showed a video from the Week Without Violence’s Clothesline, which displayed written messages about abuse. Multi-culturally Affiliated Student Organization presented a PowerPoint on domestic violence.

APAW closed the event with a spoken word piece called “Diverse,” which dealt with Asian-American history and stereotypes.

Ouye said she liked the balance that the event had with the different sub-events.

“It was a good mixture of upbeat and cultural celebration types of things and cultural awareness types of things,” she said.

Stella Ong, a sophomore speech and hearing science major, performed in the event and said this is her first year in APAW. She said it was exciting to see what the other organizations had planned.

This was the third event for Turea Erwin, director of the Women’s Resource Center. Erwin said she enjoyed it and those who put on the show did a good job.

Another attendee said it showcased the differences within the university.

“This is my fifth Building Bridges,” said Troy Alapit, senior digital technology and culture major. “It’s new every year. It kind of shows where we are as a university. It show’s where the multicultural community is inside of our community and where it’s been.”