With the nation at war and thousand suffering from loss of loved ones, I find that many of our Trustees and members may be examining whether Severn Cross Roads is an appropriate organization in which to invest their time and money. My answer is that Severn Cross Roads and Charles W. Baldwin Hall epitomize what our military men and women are fighting to protect. Baldwin Hall is now 140 years old. Its history includes housing a church, theater groups, and now a variety of artistic displays, private functions, and public meetings of community groups. Many records of local activities are preserved in the schoolhouse library. Its history then symbolized rights protected under the first amendment - freedom to exercise one's religious faith, freedom to express ones self, and freedom to assemble. Our primary purpose is to protect and preserve historically significant structures for the education of future generations to appreciate the values, struggles, mistakes, and accomplishments of those who have lived before them. In addition to this primary goal, we also serve the community by striving as an organization to bring others in to host activities that are beneficial. We try to find artists to host shows or classes, bring groups such as the Red Cross for blood drives, elementary school PTA's, or civic associations. What we do is important. We are not feeding the poor or starving nor are we building homes or repairing substandard housing. But we make community - we offer the forum where you can meet and really get to know your neighbor. We are the place where someone teaches your children how to express themselves and where you have the opportunity to appreciate the expressions of others. We are the place where you can assemble to organize people with interests common to your own. We are a solid, beautiful structure to place before our children as a monument tour community's members. We preserve the records and history of those community members so their des cendant's can know about them. We have reconstructed the forum in which one of the most basic functions of our government - educations of our young - took place for over 50 years. With your donations of money and time we maintain these structures and make available the programs that benefit our community. We need your help, and you can feel proud to offer it.