For all who helped to make our BENEFIT DINNER a joyous celebration of achievements for Palestinian families, thank you.  A few fast facts:

• Proceeds from this year's Benefit exceeded $50,000, an all time high.  We made a real advance toward the $100,000 goal we have set for the Cotton Fite Memorial Fund.
• The Fite Fund will be used to establish a Palestinian Storytelling Center, which will chronicle and preserve the cultural heritage of all Palestinians.  Click to learn more.
• Dr. Estephan Salameh and Mr. Yazan Megbil passionately told stories about the situation in Palestine today.
• The Silent Auction offered 110 items, valued at approximately $14,000.  
• The Raffle raised $1,600 and three lucky people won: 1) 8 Maine lobsters, 2) dinner for 6 at Al Bawadi restaurant and 3) a $400 cash pot.
• We experimented with a "live auction."  It was wildly successful.  Attendees had an opportunity to bid on an authentic Palestinian dinner, as well as funding for the Cotton Fite Memorial & BJ Wagner Funds and replacement library books.  In all, the silent and live auctions together raised more than $35,000.

We enjoyed three marvelous videos showing Seraj's work and popular library programs.  Click here to see all three films, and more.

We heard engaging Palestinian stories from two leaders who reported "from the ground."

Dr. Estephan Salameh                                 Mr. Yazan Meqbil

Read Estephan's entire speech about the current state and future of Seraj here.

Since the inception of Seraj, we have focused on traditional community libraries. This
time we are evolving to a national library that preserves the oral history of Palestinian
communities. Our next library will be a storytelling center that gives people the
opportunity to tell, write and record their stories.

See a clip (2 minutes) of Yazan's speech about his growing up in Palestine here.

 “From the book on Jenin's massacre to Socrates important knowledge; a Palestinian emergence through books.”