There were some amazing strokes of "luck" that enabled the Laureates' section of the web site to come together on a moment's notice. For this, some grateful acknowledgements are in order. Ruder Finn, an internationally renowned Public Relations firm. Their San Francisco office, which specializes in the technology, biotechnology and consumer communities in the Bay Area, has been an ongoing help to us. True to form, they stepped in on a moment's notice to help us get the word out on this web site. PeaceJam, one of our favorite non-profit partners, works with many of the Nobel Laureates on a regular basis, producing conferences where teenagers have the rare chance to sit at the feet of the Laureates and learn from them. They also have been ongoing friends of TheCommunity.com, and once again jumped in right from the start, helping to get the statements in hand. Earthlink, Inc., for their ongoing support in many forms to TheCommunity.com and its projects. Earthlink hosts TheCommunity.com. When things started to break with this site and we realized that we were getting much more traffic than we were prepared to handle, they stepped up and sponsored the additional bandwidth required to get this message out.  Senior personnel on their web team have been monitoring the site as our load increased, moving things around on their end to keep things running smoothly, and catching problems before we even find out about them. Armando Gutierrez of All in Spanish, a translations firm in Portland, Oregon, pulled off a small miracle for us, translating vital pages for the site within a span of 48 hours. By doing this he made the site available to a large population who would not otherwise have had access to the words of the Laureatse. With each of these organizations, we have had the real pleasure of working with people who saw what was here, and honestly and personally wanted these messages to get out to their fellow man. When you work on the Internet, you live for those times, when cooperative effort starts to take hold, and as a group you see something like this happen. Coincidentally (if you believe in coincidences), I had been introduced to Michael Collopy some three weeks before this all happened, by a mutual friend. We had become friends quickly. When it came time to start gathering these statements, and putting this site together, I had no question where I would get the photos. When you see a beautiful black and white of a Laureate, that seems to reveal something new to you about that person, look for the Michael Collopy credit. And look for two important works of his on Amazon.com. And certainly not last or least, Dr. José Ramos-Horta is, in the middle of everything else, the Cabinet Member for Foreign Affairs in East Timor. After recently completing their first democratic elections, they are in the intense process of forming their new government, a consuming job, of which he is an integral part. When September 11 happened, he was in Jakarta for meeting with other Timorese leaders and the new President of Indonesia. In his hotel room between meetings, he took the time to read and answer my e-mails. I don't remember who came up with the idea to collect the statements. He sent out the initial request to each of the Laureates. He has never failed to answer an e-mail or take a phone call to help get this site up, or to give me the phone number of a friend somewhere who could help me get through to someone. Throughout, he has lent his guidance, his experience and advice. This site would not be here without him. Thank you for being here, and please feel free to get the word out on the site yourself, on whatever available channels you have. The messages here are intended to help. With Our Best Wishes, Mary Wald President, TheCommunity.com back to home page