 including their own television special in China this wonderful musical group is under the direction of Dr. Robert G. Hamilton we are honored to have them with us tonight and I say that sincerely the Philadelphia Boys Choir and Corral from guess where Philadelphia Pennsylvania or bare with they call it the bear who slept through Christmas tell about the other television show Ted oh well I Ted's so bashful he saved the world I it was and we wish you all a Merry Christmas in the Christmas way Merry Christmas to you and may the season bring you joy Merry Christmas We wish you Christmas too and we hope you keep this The Christmas pageant invites representatives from two youth leadership groups to be a part of our ceremony and here with greetings on behalf of the Girl Scouts his son young packed like this on a night when we all look forward to lighting the tree so we have the chief rainmaker himself who's about to come forward I'm not even going to introduce him according to the script because he's a personal friend that I've loved him for a long long time every city is fortunate and every town is fortunate and every community is fortunate to have spark plugs like Joe Riley a spark plug is somebody who starts the motor the ignition and gets things done ladies and gentlemen our chairman one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet Joseph Riley thank you Willard what a great weatherman we have and what a great guy he is to be with us all the time I'm proud to be here tonight to represent the Christmas pageant a peace committee and I'm the lucky guy who thanks all those wonderful entertainers who are with us tonight and to thank you fantastic people for coming out on a night like this a lot of people put this together and certainly we must pay tribute to General Electric and Frank Legaza who designed this beautiful tree for us and this year with our theme being liberty the 100th anniversary of the Statue of Liberty they've designed a beautiful red white and blue tree for us I want to thank them also for decorating the state and territory trees that we have the DC Department recreation the Greater Washington Board of Trade the Washington Convention and Visitors Association and the Park Service who keep that tree of ours alive every day of the year have all added to the pleasure we're enjoying this evening and a special thanks to the American marketing communications company who have put this wonderful program together for us you know every night here between December 23 we see tomorrow night and December 23 we have entertainment and those wonderful volunteers who provide that entertainment for us every night and we also have refreshments for you when you're here so please take advantage of the good-heartedness of the national corporations who make that possible and a very special thank you to a fine American primitive artist from Duxbury Massachusetts who has painted the fourth in a series which depict the Christmas pageant a piece her 1985 painting shows what was here last year and is filled with her style of rural New England here she is Marie Fox of Duxbury Massachusetts Marie Marie Fox thank you very very much Marie Joe playing a country bumpkin character named Gomer Powell he went on to fame on his own show and along the way everyone discovered he had a magnificent baritone voice I give you now the multi-talented Mr. Jim neighbors