Today marks the official beginning of my Gold Award project. I have been working on the set up and logistics for this project for about a year now, but today is the first day the website is launched. As my first post, I wanted to explain to my readers why this project started and how much it means to me. The purpose of this site is to spread awareness about the Holocaust. My montra has always been "Never Forget, Never Again." Never will forget about the atrocities that occurred during those terrible years. And never again can we let something of its caliber ever happen again. Apart from this larger message, there is also a much more personal connection that brought this project idea to my mind. My grandmother is a survivor and for years, she has been unwilling to tell my family her story. I know there are many other people out there with similar situations. The problem, however, is that within the next ten years or so, all of the survivors will have passed away, and with them, their stories. I believe that their stories are an important part of their identities that cannot be forgotten. When all of the survivors have passed away, there will be no more first-hand accounts of what happened. Children will have to learn about the Holocaust from textbooks rather than story time with their parents or grandparents. I cannot fathom that sixty, eighty, one hundred or however many years from now when students are sitting in a classroom that facts and figures are just being taught. Those children need to hear the stories just like I have been fortunate to hear. And so, that is the purpose of this website. I want the youth of today and tomorrow to read and see just how dreadful the Holocaust was in the hopes of inspiring them to stand up and prevent something of its sort from ever happening again.