Let me uh call our

afternoon event together.

This is something we look forward to each year.

It's I guess the single biggest event of the Thomas Walsh Library Advisory Commission.

And that is the award of the Loudoon History Awards.

We really look forward to it.

We uh start planning for about three months ahead of time, consider people getting nominations.

Uh when the in 1994, when the town of Leesburg acquired uh this building from Loudoun County, uh they passed uh an ordinance uh creating the commission, and they said that our uh our duty was to of course ensure the library succeeded and to do all we could for the library and and uh give our our advice on that, but also to encourage the study of Loudoun and Leesburg's history.

And so that's what we

look

to these uh wards to represent.

And I think over the years, because we've given them out just about every year but one uh since '94, they have accomplished that goal that was uh given to us.

So we want to start with this.

Uh this has been an eventful year, by the way.

A lot going on.

We had the uh the Virginia 250 uh commemoration, uh, which the library has fully participated in.

Uh, and I'm gonna recognize some people that uh have had a hand in that, they had a big hand in our portion of uh the Virginia 250 communities.

But I want to start off with uh the awardees and uh this is what we look forward to.

Our first one is Mr.

Paul Crying.

He uh

excuse me.

Is it not

it's not, but also um can you guys hear me?

Yes,

much better, yes.

Yes,

a big room full of people take up the found really well.

So anyone come in and need to see there's seen something in the crowd.

But I'm Laura Richenson, and as the library director, I'm so pleased to welcome you here.

Which is as Jim has already mentioned, a wonderful annual event.

Um this is a great crowd and a great turnout on the first day of uh the change after the change of the time.

So thank you all for trying to have a good thing.

This year has been, as Jim mentioned, an amazing year for the Thomas Falsch Library, the 250th anniversary of American independence.

It led to so many wonderful events, so many shared moments and so much excitement about history that that was reflected in this year's um pool of award nominations, as well as in I can see today at the turnout for this event.

So thank you very much all for being here today.

Um I do want to acknowledge our mayor, can we reason that

we have

but also to acknowledge all the members of the commission who are here with us today, um in addition to Jim Hirschman, our chair, uh we have Paul

Coyer.

Paul Coyer.

Um we have Adrian Diaz Matina.

Sorry.

Um,

and we have Eric More Keith.

Thank you all very much for being here today.

So I will now turn it over to Jim and we'll get started with your words.

Okay.

If

I can keep if I can keep the microphone,

our first

uh presentation, Mr.

Paul Crangle.

He uh is someone who studied uh um a fact of Loudoun County history that I think a lot of us uh people who work down on Capitol Hill and we go down there a lot, uh they looked at the marble that was down there.

Everybody said, well, that's Potomac Marble, and we read the books on it and all that sort of thing.

And they said, Oh, it came out somewhere about Loudoun County and something, Paul researched it completely.

Where the marble was found, where it was quarried, how it was handled here, uh its effect on the community, not only the the capital for you know, Paul of Ben Benjamin Trope's design of the Capitol and his use in that design, but also how it affected the community here, the the men who worked uh acquiring it, uh, and later how some of it was actually ground up and used as uh in agricultural uses here in Loudoun.

So his book, which I recommend to you is Potomac Marble, the history of the search for the ideal stone.

And so Paul, I'm gonna have you come on.

Thank you.