Since last year, a program called Building Bridges has been celebrating this diversity in the community.

This year, the Saratoga Rotary Club, together with West Valley Community College, the city and numerous community groups, is planning a bigger and better event.

A weeklong series of events are planned for the week of Oct. 3 with a final celebration on Oct. 10. On that day, West Valley College will host the Building Bridges festival from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Visitors will be able to enjoy cuisine from various parts of the world, visit and interact with different community groups and enjoy performances by entertainers. The five hours of entertainment will include the performance by a different group every 15 minutes.

Two Rotary clubs from Los Gatos will also participate in the Building Bridges event.

This celebration of diversity includes projects in schools and speakers at the Saratoga Library. The lectures at the library will deal with the different religions of the world.

"We are ironing everything out. There will be more community groups this year, and there will be interactive sessions for kids," said Ruth Carlson, co-chairwoman of the publicity committee for the event. A wider variety of food samples is also being planned. Whole Foods will be providing the catering for this year's event free of charge.

"The community in Saratoga has become multicultural when we were not looking. There is little understanding of different communities," said Donald B. Miller, co-chairman of publicity for the event. He said the event is aimed at building understanding of different communities and tolerance for one other. "We are going in a bit deeper than last year," said Miller.

The Boy Scouts will present a parade of flags during the celebration. They will also construct a symbolic bridge at the end of the program.

About 3,000 people showed up for the final afternoon of the Building Bridges event in 2003. The library lecture series attracted about 100 people each night.

Fred Armstrong, who started the project last year, said that the general pattern of the event was going to be the same.

"We are having it a little earlier in the month because of the risk of rain," said Armstrong. He said he was pleasantly surprised by the enthusiastic response and hoped for more of the same this year. "If we want to get along with each other internationally, we should try to learn about each other at home," said Armstrong.

To find out more about the event, visit www.saratogarotary.org/bridges.