St. Jean Baptiste Summer Festival: A Message from the President

On the occasion of the Greek Summer Festival of the HCGM South Shore Region, President Annie Koutrakis would like to express the Community’s gratitude and appreciation to His Eminence Archbishop of Canada Sotirios, Reverend Fathers, Chairman of the Regional Council Aphrodite Stathopoulou, the entire South Shore Regional Council members, members of the HCGM Board of Directors, employees, countless volunteers, honoured guests and the public for organizing and participating in this great event on St. Jean Baptiste Day:

“God has graced us the last few days with great weather – perhaps his Eminence Sotirios, recently elevated to Archbishop of Canada and the Arctic by the Ecumenical Patriarch, had something to do with this. Thank you, Your Eminence, for your blessing. When the sun is shining, everything and everyone is brighter and happier.

Congratulations to everyone who organized this incredible festival. It makes me proud I was there with you to participate in the Esperinon service celebrating the birth of St. John the Baptist, enjoyed the great food, music and the hospitality of our great community in the South Shore.

As you all know, this is one of the most important Orthodox holidays and the day adopted by Quebec as its National holiday. It was indeed an honour for me to be there and take part in the celebrations. 

The South Shore community is a shining example of what teamwork, love and hard work can do.  The Panigiri is not an easy event to organize, and it requires many months of tireless effort and dedication to put it together and even more to make it work successfully. 

Our active participation in these religious, cultural events and by sending our children to our trilingual school Socrates-Démosthène or any of the other Greek-language educational services, but also helping those in need through our social services is what it means to be an active member of the HCGM.  Our organization makes us not only be proud Quebecers and Canadians but also helps to keep the Hellenic Flame burning and alive within each and every one of us today and for generations to come.

Sincerely,

Annie Koutrakis 

President, HCGM”