deb neman and her work in san francisco for the c.b.d. and simon bertrand from the tenderloin community benefit are all here to say thank you. congratulations for those who are willing to take on a leadership role to make benefits happen in our communities. but it also takes merchants. as well and their support to make this work happen. so, ray baird supported this benefit district idea early on. providing refreshments at community gatherings. ray, we want to say thank you so much. invite you to come on up and say a few words. >> i'm no politician. i'm not great at doing this. i'm just humble merchants with a beautiful store back here. it's great we have the back drop of my store in the back there. whoever masterminded that did a really great job. thank you to everybody who came out today. there's a lot of sharp-dressed people from the city that are here. i feel a little under dressed. i'm excited for the opportunity that the c.b.d. brings us. i kind of wanted to relate it to some stories that were in the news recently. there was a horrib