 The community of Labri is the location of this special 2021 Lama Gerit virtual celebration. It was forced to be scaled down because of COVID-19 restrictions. But the Lama Gerit Society will not be daunted. Smaller number but big in heart and passion for the Floral Society. All right. All right. All right. The Lama Gerit Society will not be daunted. The Lama Gerit Society will not be daunted. Good afternoon, everyone. I am Celeste Shapier of Labri and the Labri Lama Gerit Society. I believe that our flower festivals are one of the very unique celebrations that we as solutions have that you can't find anywhere else in the world. So I believe that we must celebrate our culture. We must perpetuate it and encourage and show that the youth understands and appreciates all that is so beautiful about our beautiful Lama Gerit Festival. Long live Lama Gerit! We must continue to celebrate our first Lama Gerit. We must create a Shirtwell Labri to shut it down. Long live Lama Gerit, everyone! Long live Lama Gerit! Long live Lama Gerit! Long live Lama Gerit! William was a Shirtwell Society Lama Gerit Labri. Long live Lama Gerit, everyone! Long live Lama Gerit! Thomas Lama Gerit, King for the January Lama Gerit. He actually became a king so many years ago when we had this gentleman, Paton, who was the king of the old Lama Gerit group in January. And he was on his deathbed and he actually called me and said he wanted me to be the Lama Gerit King because he figured I'd do a good job. We actually penned a song on it where we say, Paton see a papaya. So we had, I don't know why Paton want to see a papaya because he actually called me in and asked me to be the king. And from then on I've been the king up until now. I like the Lama Gerit. I'm basically a cultural person. I used to have a dance troupe in the village. Everything cultural, I mean cannibal, I used to do cannibal in costumes and even so kind of dresses for cannibal queens, all of that kind of thing. So when I got the opportunity, I jumped at it. It was another chance only to explore another creative side of me. Let's see how far I could take the cultural festival and make it into something grand because prior to that in January we had the usual thing and we brought on the dancing girls. We brought on sailors. We brought on all kinds of, you know, just to make the group a little more splendid if you want to call it that. And we tried getting a whole lot of young people to come in. My mama, my witness Didi and I have also tried to get sponsorship from a whole lot of companies. And one of the groups, one of the companies that has been with us a lot of the time is Lucy Lake. They've always sponsored us, assisted us with funding for, you know. And that is something we want to encourage, that the corporate people out there, the corporate groups do something about assisting because in today's world it's getting a lot more difficult. I wanted to say that it's good for us to have a different amount of money for us to have a famous festival there. That's not what the festival is about. COVID is a group of people who are in Maghre. But it's not about the spirit of Maghre because we are in Italy. The Maghre is what we are doing here in St. Louis. We are the only people in the world who can celebrate Maghre and get a lot of money. I don't want to come here. So I wanted to see a special commission for these young people. These young people who might have seen that. They might have seen an old man. They might have seen that there are 25 of us in the year. We are the only people who are in the year because we want to have a special commission for the people of Maghre. And we are the only people who make money because the people of Maghre are the only people who are in the year. If we are just young people, we don't have to worry about the fact that we are all young people. That is what we are doing. And if that is what we are doing, we aren't just going to do anything I'm Stesha Stanislas, I've not always been a Shirtwell, but my mother was raised in a household where the La Marguerite Festival was always celebrated, so I would like to be part of the keeping it alive. I'm Lucius Alevec, I am one of the affiliates of the Labry Marguerite group. I got involved several years ago in an attempt to propagate and sustain the flower festival. I, in my capacity, am the general manager of the Labry Credit Union. We actually share budgetary economic resources with both groups for that matter, both the Laros and the Marguerite, and we are happy that the Labry has a presence in terms of the perpetuation and continuity of both flower festivals. And today we are happy to be associated with this initiative where we still commemorating Margaret, notwithstanding the ravages of COVID, and we think one of the ways of actually perpetuating the cultural heritage is actually by through recordings, and we think that this initiative today is will go a long way in that regard. The whole question of social mindedness, the whole question of identity. It is interesting that even persons who scorn the art form in St. Lucia, when they go to London, when they go to New York, when they go to Paris, and they hear any of our songs put into the flower festivals, how they become nostalgic, and then they want to identify with St. Lucia through the Laros songs, through the Marguerite song. So whether it is through our subconscious or whatever else, we think it is one of the ties that binds us to St. Lucia. And as what you call it as part of our cultural heritage, it's an endowment. And I think as part of corporate social responsibility, as part of concern for community, we should do whatever we can to perpetuate it. So then that is the impetus, the driving force why I am involved in this initiative. Culture to thrive or to be perpetuated. You need the young people who are coming up to know about it. They need to see it. It needs to be in their face like the other the other things that you have the rap and all the nutrients are out in their face. And we do not do it for our culture. One particular thing that I actually lamented was when during the Indian celebrations we tried to put on there was a parade being put on. And it was at the last minute that Lar Marguerite and Laros groups were being asked to participate. When Lar Marguerite and Laros, these are the two festivals that are uniquely ours. They didn't feature in the advertisements. They didn't feature in anything. That's a poor excuse. And then you tell me about the perpetuation of the culture. Here we are, the people trying to do our own bit. During the year, we need to see a lot more activities in terms of workshops, in terms of getting young people involved, in terms of exposing people to the culture, what it's about, what it looks like. Start putting in books. Do we see our culture in the children's readers? There is a basal reader, but how much of our culture is involved in there? We always need to make sure that we sell in much the same way as millions of dollars are pumped into, is always being pumped into Cannibal. We need to pump that, with that same energy, try to get our young people infused about our culture so that they would want to participate in it. But I want to encourage everyone, because I am the one who started with my mother, who in fact, but the situation is currently, the people who are dying, the people who are actually dying, I am the one who is dying, I am the one who is dying, I am the one who is dying. I want to encourage everyone, everyone just to participate, just to be on their side and to vote, participate. Thank you. Thank you. Remember, the celebration is the 17th of October, even if we are plagued with COVID, it doesn't mean that you cannot celebrate. So wear something purple, blue, all the colors of the Lamagirit. Celebrate Lamagirit in grand style.