Parents can bring their children to the Ballenger Teacher Center at Booth Library Thursday evening to learn about Latino culture as part of the Latino Heritage Month celebration at Eastern.

The Minority Teacher Education Association story time will begin at 6 p.m. and will last between an hour to an hour and a half.

The event is being hosted by the Latin American Student Organization. 

Alexandra Tinajero Alvarez, a sophomore human services program administration major and vice president of LASO, said the children will be read 2 to 3 children’s books followed by arts and crafts that relate to Latin American Heritage Month.

“They’re all bilingual books and afterwards there will be coloring pages,” Tinajero Alvarez said. 

She said the goal was to “educate and show off our culture in this predominantly white institution and open it up to anybody.”

The main craft of the night is based off of one of the books that will be read to the children, Tinajero Alvarez said.

“One of the books is called ‘El Pero Con Sombrero,’ so a dog with a sombrero,” she said. “We looked up crafts (relating to) that, so we are going to all make sombreros out of the paper plates and decorate them with pompoms.”

Parents are more than welcome to stay with their children during the event, but they do not have to, Tinajero Alvarez said. 

While the length of the event is to be determined based on the children’s activity progress, Tinajero Alvarez said parents who choose to drop their children off will be asked to provide a phone number to be contacted for a pickup time.

Tinajero Alvarez said all children in the area are welcome to attend the event.

“(The event is) for the few kids that are in the Charleston and Eastern community; we wanted to do something for them so they could feel at home and can participate in something,” she said. “They don’t have to be specifically Latino to show up to this event.”

She said this will be the first story time event hosted by LASO in a few years and she is looking forward to seeing the turnout of the night. 

Hannah Shillo can be reached at 581-2812 or hlshillo@eiu.edu