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Dr. Camelia Lawrence has been named the new ringmaster of the Barnum Festival. 

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99ourlives_2023-09-09-13-06-27

Our Lives: Barnum Festival names new ringmaster

Welcome to our lives. I'm Gwen Edwards. She is boldly going where no other woman of color has gone before Dr Camille Lawrence has been named the new Ring Master of the Barnum Festival. Doctor Lawrence. Thank you so much for joining us here on our lives. It's a humbling experience to be granted this opportunity and I'm looking forward to just meeting everyone so we can hit the ground running in and let's start planning for an exciting coming months ahead. This is a historic first for a woman of color. I found out that I am the second woman to fill this role. I am also perhaps the first mother and the first woman of color. So I think it speaks to the leadership of the PT Barnum committee and the executive director in trying to expand and to grow and to evolve with the times. Hopefully for the years to come, there will be quite a few more women in the role if I have any say in it. How do you hope to impact the Barnum Festival? I do think there's an opportunity to sort of revitalize. We would like to get more of the millennial crowd, the younger crowd involved like to continue the tradition. So in order to do so, succession plan is important. So we are hoping that we'll have more activities that caters to a younger crowd as well. I have a long standing history of community building within the greater Bridgeford area. I see the PT Barnum Festival as an opportunity to continue to build on that, to build our community together. You know, PT Barman is known to be the greatest showman. He was known to bring folks together. It's about recreation and fun, but it is also creating an inclusive environment. So I'm here to continue his legacy and the legacy of the previous ringmasters before me. So what's your day job? Well, when I'm not, you know, being the ring master, I am a surgeon by profession. I work for Hartford Health Care as the director of breast surgery for the hospital, Central Connecticut and Mid State Medical Center. My practice primarily revolves around helping women who are impacted by breast cancer. How are you going to balance the responsibilities of your day job with your new responsibilities as Ring Master. The Barnum Festival has a large support team. There are different committees, there are folks who are in place who knows the roles and responsibility very well. And I will say so far, the outpouring of support to help me successful fill this role has been amazing, Dr Camilla Lawrence. Thank you so much. Congratulations again. And we want to thank you for watching our lives where we bring you information interviews that you will see nowhere else for our lives. I'm Gwen Edwards.

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