Webster City celebrated the new “All Cultures Equal” center at an open-house this past weekend, honoring newly-arrived immigrants to the area. All Cultures Equal founder Doug Bailey said ACE had a “great” weekend.He says there was a nice turnout and they gave out some awards to people who deserved them including naming the building “Moon Hall,” after Moon Thongsouk. A leader in the immigrant community, Thongsouk was part of the driving force behind starting the center. The organization’s made up of a cross-section of community members including Laotian, Hispanic, and white residents that planned and now run the multi-cultural center. The Reverend Marvin Miller of Storm Lake is a member of the Presbyterian Church’s National Committee for the Self-Development of People. Reverend Miller says the people who’ll benefit from a program should be the ones who control it, so he met with the Laotian immigrant people as well as representatives of the Hispanic community on the site proposal for a center, and together they decided the church would fund it. The church donated 90-thousand dollars toward the center. The minister says the church is happy to see the plan come to fruition and praised the center as a “great place” for family and community activities. The ACE Center in Webster City has served the population of Laotian and spanish-speaking people whose number has increased rapidly in recent years. It offers meeting space, English and citizenship classes, parenting and job-skills training, and daycare.
