Mentor teacher Debbie Simpson and exchange teacher Xu Menghong were awarded a CLP grant to celebrate the Chinese Spring Festival in Laurens, South Carolina. The open house event, which was offered to all students, parents, and community members, gave attendees a broader understanding of China and cross-cut many subjects. Chinese students prepared booths about Chinese cooking, the Chinese Zodiac, Spring Festival history, paper cutting, lantern making, and customs and superstitions. The students also performed a traditional dragon dance in a costume that they built themselves. Xu Menghong coordinated the student groups to and helped them to complete their assignments and research to prepare for the evening event.
Through this project, the Laurens community received a brief but thorough introduction to the Chinese culture at one of its greatly celebrated moments. Attendance at the event neared 500 people. In addition, the project allowed groups within the Chinese classes to become experts at different aspects of Chinese culture and language. As a result of this CLP, students were increasingly motivated to enroll in Chinese the following year.