Submitted photo
Columbus native Rachel Stewart, daughter of Ethnic Expo founder Barbara Stewart, is shown on a river cruise where she lives in Thailand.
It seems especially fitting that the daughter of the woman who brought the world to Columbus’ doorstep nearly half a century ago lives in Thailand.
Rachel Stewart, enjoying retirement in southeast Asia, will especially remember her mother and former city first lady Barbara Stewart this Friday and Saturday when the late leader’s passion project known as the Ethnic Expo international festival marks its 40th anniversary. The free outdoor celebration that still attracts an estimated 25,000 people will unfold from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. both days, rain or shine, at First and Washington streets downtown with food, music, dance, an international bazaar and more.
The festival founder died in 2003 at age 71 on a cruise off the coast of England, exploring a bit of the world just as she encouraged so many others to do via her trademark event. She launched Expo with a volunteer committee in 1984 as a way to make the city’s growing international population feel more at home — and a way for those residents to share some of their life and culture with the city in the name of friendship and unity.
Expo became such a part of the community fabric by 1994 that it also was a part of then-Cummins Engine Co.’s 75th anniversary celebration.
“I think she would be absolutely thrilled with the impact today,” the daughter said, speaking by phone from her home about her mom’s view of affecting people’s perceptions of others. “She always believed that if you’re going to educate them, then you have to entertain them.”
Rachel Stewart saw that firsthand, serving as grand marshal of the now-defunct Expo parade in 2015.
“Anything we can do today to do away with any cultural philosophy of us versus them, or anything that we can do in the present to remove barriers between all people, she would still be in full support of,” the daughter said.
Columbus resident Anna Bogard, a member of the original Expo organizing committee that coordinated the inaugural, single-day event in 1984, remembers the founder as visionary — even if Bogard and others had yet to catch that vision.
“I thought to myself, ‘This will be a nice little local festival,’” Bogard remembered in a past Republic story. “I didn’t know we would later have people visiting from (places such as) England and Germany.”
Bogard laughed this week about her past short-sightedness. When Stewart asked her to help, Bogard, who worked at a local bank then, quickly agreed.
“You couldn’t say no to Barbara,” Bogard said.
The Expo queen was seen as a leader, but was so down-to-earth and fun that when female members of the ABATE motorcycle group were once asked in the late 1980s whom they would like to climb on their bike for a joyride, they named Stewart.
Stewart recruited volunteers from groups such as the Cosmopolitan Club that first year. Bogard initially helped plan children’’s activities and later worked alongside people such as Jack Schmeckebier and Larry Brackney on the kite fly held for several years when Expo temporarily expanded to a third day.
She and Stewart, a big foreign kite collector and flyer for years, sometimes would meet at Southside Elementary School after a workday and hoist the fanciful floaters skyward.
“We’d be out there in our business suits and heels,” Bogard said.
Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon understands Expo’s significance.
“The success of Ethnic Expo over four decades is a testament to our city’s celebration of our diversity and welcoming community,” Ferdon said. “At its heart, Ethnic Expo allows us to better understand our neighbor’s culture and heritage and share what makes us unique.
“And let’s face it, we all love a good party, and great food, art and music brings the community together every October.”
Bogard sees Expo as perhaps more important today than even in the beginning.
“I think that carrying on Barbara’s (Expo) vision is so important today, because we all need to first acknowledge one another simply as people,” Bogard said. “And not as Chinese, Japanese, Indian or anything else. … It’s about learning about your neighbor.”
