The board of the St. Maarten Carnival Foundation (SCDF) has chosen the slogan for Carnival 2012: "Let’s delve into we carnival 2012". As has become tradition, the selection of a slogan was done via a public competition. The SCDF received over 100 submissions via Facebook and email during the competition period, exceeding the submissions for the carnival 2011 slogan competition.
In the end, the board of the SCDF settled on the submission by Delbert Jack who works at a major hardware store. He received a season pass to Carnival 2012, which is deeply appreciated as he is an avid carnival supporter.
President of the SCDF Stuart Johnson said after much debate, the theme was chosen to reinforce the commitment and involvement of the people as it shall always be the "people’s festival."
"We held onto the "we carnival" part of the slogan as it speaks to everyone who loves carnival or is involved in any facet of our cultural celebrations," Johnson said. "We embraced the involvement of the people perspective in the winning slogan; people must hold onto the ownership of our carnival as it belongs to them," he added.
"Everyone can feel proud of the steps taken already towards the preparation of Carnival 2012, inclusive of the full schedule already being released, our ongoing registration, our promoters being identified, and now our slogan being launched," Johnson said.
"We surely are holding onto the promise made; early preparations for carnival surely will lead to a more successful carnival season, once again. We’ve come a long way and this is simply just the beginning of what is yet to come," Johnson concluded.
The SCDF is also gearing up to release its plans for the marketing and further promotion of Carnival for the upcoming season and beyond.