L'Alliance New York: Opening of Pre-school at the Montclair, NJ Location 

Speech by Tatyana Franck, President of L’Alliance New York:

Good afternoon everyone, I’m Tatyana Franck, the and I am thrilled to welcome you here today. You can’t imagine how happy I am, with my team, to have been able to be ready on time to open this new preschool. It has not been easy... I must be frank with you! There were challenges, surprises, obstacles; but we had only one goal in mind: to open this preschool today for you and for YOUR KIDS, and thanks to YOU, with YOU and for YOU, we are all here today... With passion, with dedication, Marie-Catherine Glaser our director, our team and myself have worked hard and put all our efforts to make this wonderful project happen. Today, we celebrate the result of this perseverance. This opening is bigger than the opening of a preschool; it’s a fantastic news that I’m happy to share with our extraordinary new Consul Genera!! It means, my Dear Cedrik, that French Culture is alive! That more kids and families will learn French and have access to this great culture. I personally believe that people should not make the effort to go to culture, but culture should come to people Where they are, Where they work, And where they live! This is why it was so important that L’Alliance New York comes to Montclair, New Jersey, because you are an incredible community, and you can be proud of it! Thank you so much Mayor Renée Baskerville. Thank you to: Yasmin Hernandez, Montclair’s Public Schools Supervisor of World Language and ESL, Radwa Ali, Director of the Montclair Public Library, and all the members of the French Faculty at Montclair State University who are here today. Nothing could have happened without your support! This initiative was made possible thanks to: The extraordinary support of L'Alliance Board of Trustees who are her with us today: Thank you Dear Charles de Lardemelle, Dear Homaira Akbari, Dear Andrea Walther-Puri, Dear Helena Skarstedt. And also thanks to grants from the Federation of Alliances Françaises USA, and the Soutien associatif des Français à l'étranger facilitated by the Consulate General of France. We are immensely grateful for their commitment. To everyone who contributed— our architects from Parette Somjen Architects, the construction team, our teachers, and our families —THANK YOU! Your effort has turned vision into reality. I would also like to thank our culinary partners for their generosity tonight, Jayce Baudry, Le French Dad, Butler & the Board, and Faubourg Restaurant, Thank you! Opening a school is investing in our future for the next generation! Thank you à vous tous ! Vive L’Alliance, Vive Montclair, Vive l’amitié franco-américaine!