 Hi, I'm Tom Mays with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Over the past couple of years, I've been writing a series of essays for the preservation leadership forum blog of the National Trust about why old places matter. What we're doing now is a video competition where we hope we'll hear from other people about why old places matter to them. I'm standing here in front of a little alley dwelling in Washington, D.C., where I lived in my 20s. Why does this place matter? It matters because for me, it gives me a sense of continuity, identity, and memory. It also teaches us things that we otherwise wouldn't know, and it's sustainable and green. I love to come back here, and whenever I do, it conjures up a whole host of memories, memories of my niece and nephew visiting Washington, D.C. for the first time, memories of meeting my now-boyfriend, memories of being a newly-minted lawyer in Washington, D.C. This is a place that also tells us about folks who lived in Washington, D.C. in earlier eras, but didn't necessarily make it into the history books. It's also a place that's in the Capitol Hill Historic District, and it's sustainable and green because it's walkable and dense here. So like lots of old places, this is a place that has a lot of different reasons that it matters to people, layers and layers of reasons. I hope that you'll submit a video that talks about why old places matter to you. The video should be about 30 seconds long, even though this one's a little bit longer. It should be uploaded to YouTube. The rules and how-tos are actually going to be posted in the Preservation Leadership Forum blog, and you should begin each video by saying, old places matter because. So I hope that I'll hear from you about why old places matter to you. Thank you.