Bob Gin, President of the Monterey Park Library Foundation welcomed the 260 guests to the Fourth Annual Library Gala held on June 1st at the Luminarias Restaurant to benefit the Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library. He thanked them for giving back to our community.

A great selection of raffle prizes lines the walls for guests to purchase chances to win the gift of their dreams.

This dinner with raffle prizes raised over $21,000 to benefit the city’s hometown library.

J D Deperio from Shall We Dance Entertainment provided the background music.

Members of the Monterey Park Fire Explorers present the colors and led the flag salute.

Pek Chan sang our National Anthem at the dinner event.

Carol Sullivan, a member of the Foundation, read two poems of inspiration on the importance of a small group of citizens that can change the world. It is time for us to share with each other. She requested the guests purchase raffle tickets as part of the fundraising event.

Mr. Gin thanked everyone for supporting the library. The Foundation, the Board of Trustees, Friends of the Library, business owners and resident donors raised $140,000 so far to support our library.

He spoke about his experience reading to the students in his district and a letter he received from one of the students. The student spoke about their love of reading that was fun, helps us learn and helps them use our imagination. The student agreed that books are fun and the library is the place to find books to enjoy.

Tonight we are honoring Mike Eng, Boardmember of the Los Angeles Community College District; Members of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance of San Gabriel Valley and Los Angeles chapters; The Kiwanis Club; Nancy Yee, a longtime volunteer and Jason Mai, who donated $10,000 worth of stuffed animals to the Children’s Library.  He thanked them for their support.

The awards from the Monterey Park Library Foundation, Congressmember Judy Chu, Senator Ed Hernandez and Assemblymember Ed Chau were displayed during the dinner.

City Librarian Norma Arvizu welcomed the guests to this special event. She said the Foundation raised $87,000 for the library. We are dedicated library users. She spoke about the future plans for the library that include more computer classes in both Mandarin and Spanish; proctoring tests for several colleges; expanding the YF services; more puppets and readers for the children; pro-bono legal services; Reading Rockets Program for the children; ten more computer stations and additional services in the future with your help.

Mr. Gin said approximately 3,400 people use this library a week.

He introduced the special guests included Congressmember Judy Chu, Trustee Mike Eng, Mayor Pro Tem Stephen Lam, Councilmember Peter Chan, Councilmember Hans Liang, Interim City Manager Ron Bow, Fire Chief Scott Haberle, Departments Heads: Tom Cody, Michael Huntley, Annie Yaung, Cindy Trang and Tito Haes, former Mayor Francisco Alonso, former City Clerk Theresa Amador, former City Clerk Dave Barron, Water District Member Thomas Wong, Officers of Chinese American Citizens Alliance: Annie Yee and Charles Mau,  Garvey School Boardmember Henry Lo, Alhambra School Boardmembers Bob Gin,  Adele Andrade-Stadler, Jane Anderson, Laura Tellez-Gagliano, Denise Jaramillo and Rosemead Councilmember Polly Low.

Congressmember Judy Chu said she is glad to be here. The new library is well used with strong community support. She is glad to honor these people tonight. She spoke about honoring her husband, Mike Eng, for his service to the library and the community. He helped the immigrants with the LAMP tutoring program with Harvey Elparin and helped get more Chinese language books donated to the library. He helped the Foundation with their legal battle to keep the Foundation legally separated from the city government.  He also was on the Board to raise funds for Measure C to build a new library building. This tax and $350,000 in additional funds helped the city match the state grant funds to build the new building. Mike Eng received the Trustee of the Year in 2002.

Congressmember Chu thanked Boardmember Mike Eng, Charles Mau and Annie Yee of CACA for their support with proclamations.

Mr. Gin thanked Judy Chu for her support of the library and Monterey Park.

Carol Sullivan and Mary Ann Garcia-Barlow reminded the guests of all of the wonderful prizes and asked them to please purchase more tickets to help support library.

Mr. Gin introduced the members of the Foundation, Trustees and Friends to the guests. He asked them to standup to be recognized.

Bob Gin introduced Annie Yee from the Los Angels Lodge of CACA. She spoke about this civil rights movement that was founded in 1895 to help protect the rights of Chinese Americans. She said this is a great honor for her to accept this awards on behalf of the lodge.  She called the library her hometown library. She reminded people that Winston Wu, a member of CACA, always volunteers to help students and seniors at the library.

Bob Gin introduced Charles Mau from the San Gabriel Valley Lodge of CACA.  He said it is a great honor to receive this award. He thanked his lodge members and the library staff. The library provided information for resources, education and entertainment. It is a meeting place for the residents to meet each other. He spends his time in the library. He is happy share his culture at the library for the citizens to enjoy.

Norma Arvizu introduced Mike Eng to the crowd. She met him nine years ago. He is active in the community and fight against ignorance. He is very involved in the community. The city and other communities have honored him. He is a community leader and inspires others. He speaks to causes close to our hearts. He supports the library.

Norma Arvizu and Bob Gin presented Mike Eng with his award.

Mike Eng thanked them for their support. He said people needed to meet on common ground. The library was common ground. He helped start the Essay Contest on the topic to write about somebody from another ethnic group. It was a teachable moment. This committee read these essays and was helped by young people to understand the immigration issue. They wanted to learn English so they developed LAMP.

He spoke about a tutor named Harvey Elparin, who traveled by bus from Montebello to help at the library. He helped immigrants learn English and take citizenship classes. The old library was so full so we expanded the library.  He, Yukio Kawaratani and other community members help raised the additional funds to match the library grant.

He also spoke about the legal battle fought against the city to keep the Foundation a separate legal entity so the city could not fire the library board.

We should be proud of our library. It is common ground. You are the face of California and America.

Mr. Gin spoke about Love The Library measure that failed to get 66 and 2/3rds of the votes to pass Measure LL to continue Measure C that will sunset in 2018.

We lost by 6% of the votes so we will try again next year to get a new tax measure passed to support our library.

Bob Gin presented an award to Annie Yee in memory of her mother, Nancy Yee for all of her volunteer hours at the library. She thanked them for this award. Her mother loved Monterey Park.

Bob Gin presented an award to Jason Mai for his $10,000 donation of stuffed toys to the Children’s Library. He thanked them for this opportunity. He loves our city.

Norma Arvizu and Bob Gin presented an award to members of the Kiwanis Club for their generous donations. The Kiwanis member asked people to give to the library foundation.

Theresa Amador, Vice President of the Foundation, thanked all of the sponsors for their generous donations of money, prizes and their time to this event and the library.

She spoke about some more upcoming events for the library: October 7th, 2017 Day at the Races and February 3rd, 2018 High Tea at the Library. Please save the dates and attend them in support of our library.

She thanked the guests for their generous donations of $87,000 that was raised last year.  She thanked them for attending this event.

Some of the long time residents who have donated their time and talents to serve the Monterey Park Bruggemeyer Library over the years. They have been successful in raising funds to keep the library opened for the public.

The event ended with several lucky guests winning their door prizes.