 While traveling across the US in the 1970s, Mary Means noticed the widespread loss of historic buildings across small towns in the Midwest. With shopping malls drawing retail from downtowns, historic buildings were becoming vacant, neglected, and gearing for demolition. Mary Means looked for ways to preserve these beautiful buildings and bring back downtowns but found none. Mary conceived of and designed the Main Street project for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a three-town, three-year pilot project in Galesburg, Illinois, Madison, Indiana, and Hot Springs, South Dakota. The project had the bold mission of demonstrating economic development within the context of historic preservation. The Main Street is more than historic buildings, it's more than small businesses. It's really about the heart and soul of the country. It's a deep part of the American psyche. The pilot was such a success that hundreds of towns across the United States wrote to the trust, wanting their help to reinvigorate their own towns. Knowing that the success of the project hinged on sharing her findings, Mary went around on an educational campaign to save these historic districts. Lessons learned from Mary's pilot towns became the four-point approach that has been used by thousands of towns and cities to save their downtowns. At a national level, the historic tax credit was arguably saved by its link to Main Street more than once. Nothing better exemplifies the small town spirit of working together than the efforts of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the pioneering accomplishments of its National Main Street Center. Project Main Street evolved into the National Main Street Center, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. It has tracked data in over 2,000 communities. Their grassroots effort is responsible for $85 billion in public private investment, renovating nearly 300,000 buildings, starting more than 150,000 new businesses, and creating 672,000 new jobs. They were doing economic development. Some people were doing preservation, but no one had ever taken all of the elements and put them together the way that Mary did with the Main Street program. And that's really what Mary pioneered, was thinking about how to use the marketplace as a tool for preservation. It started off as a program and ended up as a movement that continues 35 years later. So this is one of the most successful economic development programs ever created in the United States. Mary Means has made a lifelong career of speaking tough truths and motivating brokers not only to care about historic preservation, but to help elevate the concerns of communities. Mary continued to expand how historic preservation could make practical connections to and beyond communities through her small but mighty firm, Mary Means & Associates. Her work in heritage tourism, including plans for Colorado and Pennsylvania, convinced legislators that heritage tourism is economic development with real jobs, quality of life, and preservation of places that matter detached. In 2019, she won the American Planning Association Planning Pioneer Award, and later this year, Mary plans to release a book 40 years in the making about the resiliency of Main Streets. Mary is a visionary, a changemaker, and a legend who has expanded the narrative around historic preservation in our nation to go far beyond just great places. I am so excited to receive this award. It's really humbling, mainly because I've known quite a number of the people who've received it before, and they've been inspirations to me, particularly the younger me, and I want to especially recognize the three original Main Street managers, Scott Gerloff, Tom Moriarty, and Clark Shuttle. Together, we truly changed historic preservation. The pandemic recovery is going to be long, and it's going to take every one of us doing our part to make it happen. Everyone has a stake in Main Street's future. It's going to take all of us, and it's particularly going to take Congress. We're going to need help keeping this vital Main Street revitalization network of organizations going so they can help the individual businesses. It's a lot more than small business, though. Main Street is the heart of our communities and so much a part of the American psyche. Together, we can make it happen. I really want to thank everyone who's been involved in the Main Street revitalization movement because it's you who've really done the work. I'm honored and thank you.