Often asked what prompted and sustained this project, to answer I turn to Emily's last lines in Thorton Wilder's Our Town. In Act III, she dies in childbirth, is granted a day to return to life to see but not to be seen. Of her family and neighbors she says, "We never noticed...life goes by so fast...we don't have time ot look at one another."

I hope, I suppose, that this project can enable the people of Townshend–and us– to have a chance to stop and look at one another before life goes by all so fast.