BOSTON- A group of talented mentors who attend Boston Public Schools celebrated the Boston Public Library with Mayor Thomas M. Menino and 300 guests at the BPL on Friday evening, November 6, in Copley Square. The event’s goal was to raise $500,000 to enhance branch programs and facilities, improve access to the Library through new technologies, and complete the final phase of the National Historic Landmark McKim Building restoration.
The celebration began with a cocktail reception in Deferrari Hall, where guests enjoyed the exhibit Cool Collected – Treasures of the BPL. An elegant dinner followed in Bates Hall, the main reading room of the National Historic Landmark McKim Building. New England’s #1 cutting edge band, First Class, performed music for dancing in the Abbey Room, where murals by the famed artist Edwin Austin Abbey line the walls. Michael Lewin, concert pianist, and Dora Lewin, Bank of America, co-chaired the event.
Among the guests at the festivities were: Mayor Thomas M. Menino; Ted Kelly, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Liberty Mutual; Bob Gallery, Massachusetts State President of U.S. Trust/Bank of America; Nick Paleologos, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Film Office; Developer Tony Pangaro; Dr. Larry Cohn and wife Roberta; Thalia Schlessinger; BPL Trustees Jeff Rudman and wife Susan Fried; Zamawa Arenas and her husband Murray Forman; BPL President Amy Ryan; Ron O’Hanley, Chairman of the BPL Foundation; and BPL Foundation President Brian Clancy and wife Susan. Janet Wu, 7NEWS Boston, emceed.
Guests were thrilled to view chapter 2 of Cool Collected: Treasures of the Boston Public Library, a year-long exhibition celebrating over 160 years of collecting by the BPL. Among the items currently on display are an illustration from James John Audubon’s Birds of America; Officers at Camp Benton, Maryland, by Winslow Homer; a «Harry Houdini Scrapbook,» compiled by a close friend; and the original score for the American premiere of Peter and the Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev.
Guests especially celebrated the BPL’s Homework Assistance and Mentoring Program, a winner of the prestigious Urban Libraries Council/Highsmith Award of Excellence for exemplifying the principles of positive youth development. The mentors, a wonderfully diverse group of young adults who often serve in the neighborhoods in which they have grown up, were delighted to be present to tell the guests about how they help other students complete their homework so they can succeed in school. They charmed guests while conducting an on-the-spot special appeal that raised much-needed funds.
