BEVERLY HILLS, Calif., May 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Banking giant Wachovia and literary icon Larry McMurtry were two honorees at an awards dinner benefiting the Los Angeles Public Library on April 30 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. Some 600 guests gathered to help celebrate the honorees and support the Los Angeles Public Library. Funds raised by the event, which exceeded $600,000, will help fund adult literacy programs, children and teen reading programs, technology enhancements and cultural programs that would not otherwise be supported through city revenues.
Wachovia received the Library Foundation of Los Angeles' corporate philanthropy award, while McMurtry accepted the Los Angeles Public Library Literary Award. (Previous awardees have included Tony Kushner, Norman Mailer, Harper Lee, and Susan Sontag). In addition, John Cooke, chairman emeritus of the Library Foundation and a prominent Los Angeles businessman and philanthropist, received the Foundation's Light of Learning Award for his tireless work and behalf of both the Foundation and the Los Angeles Public Library.
Wachovia announced a significant two-year partnership with the Foundation in the form of a $225,000 grant from The Wachovia Foundation, which will be used to "adopt" several L.A. Public Library branches in underserved neighborhoods, fund new computers and support a new ALOUD at Central Library lunchtime series focuses on business authors, leaders and entrepreneurs. "At Wachovia, our goal is to make every community where we do business a better place to live and raise our families," said Frank Newman, Wachovia's
President for Southern California in accepting the award. "We're committed to increasing access to education and strengthening underserved neighborhoods-and our partnership with the Library Foundation of Los Angeles will help us do just this. We're proud to support the Library Foundation, and the Los Angeles Public Library, as they offer free access to information, programs and services that support life-long learning."
In accepting his literary award from actress Diane Keaton, McMurtry, the Pultizer Prize winning author of Lonesome Dove as well as more than 40 other works, expressed his fondness for Los Angeles at the same time he voiced his concern for the number of independent bookstores that have closed in the region. He reminisced about the "defining moment" of his life-receiving at age six the gift of 19 books. "The fact of books-and what they can lead you into-into the vast world of the imagination-has been the dominant force in my life," he said.
Cooke, in accepting his award from producer and writer Gary David Goldberg, thanked the Foundation, "whose board members I love and deeply respect for their support of the library-an organization that last year had 16 million visitors and 112 million hits on its web site."
About the Library Foundation of Los Angeles
The Library Foundation of Los Angeles seeks private contributions to benefit the Los Angeles Public Library. Since its creation in 1992, the Library Foundation has raised more than $75 million for programs and services that reach thousands of people each year.
About the Los Angeles Public Library
The Los Angeles Public Library serves the largest population of any library in the nation. Its Central Library, 71 branch libraries, more than 6 million books and state-of-the art technology accessible at http://www.lapl.org/ provide everyone with free and easy access to information.
About Wachovia
Wachovia Corporation is one of the nation's largest diversified financial services companies, with assets of $808.9 billion and market capitalization of $53.8 billion at March 31, 2008. Wachovia provides a broad range of retail banking and brokerage, asset and wealth management, and corporate and investment banking products and services to customers through 3,300 retail financial centers in 21 states from Connecticut to Florida and west to Texas and California, and nationwide retail brokerage, mortgage lending and auto finance businesses. Globally, clients are served in selected corporate and institutional sectors and through more than 40 international offices. Our retail brokerage operations under the Wachovia Securities brand name manage more than $1.1 trillion in client assets through 18,600 registered representatives in 1,500 offices nationwide.
