Guardian Gala Celebrates the Freedom to Read

Award-winning authors Jacqueline Woodson and Emma Straub were among the honorees as the New Rochelle Public Library Foundation held its Guardian Gala on Thursday, May 9th at the Greentree Country Club in New Rochelle. Some 370 guests attended the glittering event, raising nearly $117,000 for the nonprofit NRPLF, which supports the city’s libraries.

NRPLF’s Guardian Award was presented to three champions in the fight against book banning: Authors Jacqueline Woodson and Emma Straub, and publisher Nancy Paulsen, President of Nancy Paulsen Books, Penguin Inc.

All three Guardian Award winners spoke passionately about the freedom to read and the dangers of book banning. Bestselling author and bookstore owner Emma Straub wrote about the event in her Newsletter, noting “Nancy has been publishing children’s books for decades and Jackie has been writing for decades and the two of them together are an incredible team. I felt truly honored to be with them. It was exceptional company.”

Also honored were Community Heroes Chris Selin, President of the New Rochelle Public Library Foundation for the past 9 years as well as a former member of City Council; Tom Geoffino, recently retired Director of the New Rochelle Public Library for the past 18 years; and Business Honorees Donna and Bob Young, who head up the Young Companies and the JRY Foundation.

The Greentree Country Club was cleverly decorated with book art sculptures of peacocks that perched on the bar and nested on the dining tables; the concept came from committee member Liz Aiello. The festive evening included cocktails, dinner and dancing, with emcee Tony Aiello in charge of a program that included videos and award presentations.

The Guardian Gala Steering Committee included Chairperson Lynn Green, Liz Aiello, Amy Bass, Carmelina DiMarco, Leslie M. Demus, Judith Factor, Ally Gallin, Rachel Groh, Erin Harrell Riley. Lisa Itzkowitz, Haina Just-Michael, Theresa Kump Leghorn, Chris Selin, Tobe Sevush, Ellen Sonet,Anne Todd, Stephanie Tomei, Sharon Weekes and Mica Wilson.

The Guardian Gala was sponsored by the Cappelli Organization (Guardian Sponsor); Haven Capital and RXR (First Edition Sponsors); The City of New Rochelle, Masonry Depot and Chuck Burke and Jonathan Stark (Classic Novel Sponsors); Iona University, Northstar Properties, Montefiore New Rochelle, Ally and Tom Gallin Jr., and Lynn and Steven Green (Prose & Poetry Sponsors); Barbara and Frank Axel, Judith Factor and Bob Wechsler, Tom Geoffino, Theresa Kump Leghorn and Tom Leghorn, Amy Paulsen, Nancy Paulsen, David Friend and Sam Friend, Chris Selin and Jeff Endervelt, Ellen and Steve Sonnet and Takeform/Quorum Group (Book Lover Sponsors); and Apple Maintenance, Architectural Preservation Studio DPC, Creative Library Concepts, the Cutler Levy Family, George T. Davis Funeral Home, Mary Ann and Nick DeFeis, Leslie Demus and Ralph Dawson, Carmelina and Frank DiMarco, Linda Kelly Fauci and Peter Fauci, Ximena and Andrew Francella, Haina Just-Michael and Bernard Michael, Marianne and Bob Sussman, and Sharon Weekes (Hotspot Hero Sponsors).

The Guardian Award was created to recognize individuals whose careers and lifetime accomplishments exemplify the mission of public libraries: Providing free and open access to information and to a broad variety of ideas and viewpoints. Journalists Fareed Zakaria and Tom Goldstone were the first recipients in 2019.

The New Rochelle Public Library Foundation (NRPLF) was established in 1994 to support the Library and all that it provides to the city’s diverse community of approximately 80,000 residents. A nonprofit organization comprised entirely of volunteer members, the Foundation raises resources and provides advocacy to keep this vital institution vibrant, up-to-date, and able to serve the needs of the citizens of New Rochelle. For more information visit the NRPL website at www.nrplfoundation.org.

About the Guardian Award Honorees

Jacqueline Woodson is an American writer of books for adults, children, and adolescents. She is best known for her National Book Award-Winning memoir Brown Girl Dreaming, and her Newbery Honor-winning titles After Tupac and D Foster, Feathers, and Show Way. Her picture books The Day You Begin and The Year We Learned to Fly were New York Times Bestsellers. After serving as the Young People’s Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017, she was named the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature by the Library of Congress for 2018–19. She was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Medal in 2020. Later that same year, she was a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “Genius Award.” In 2023 she was named a Guggenheim Fellow.

“I used to say I’d be a teacher or a lawyer or a hairdresser when I grew up but even as I said these things, I knew what made me happiest was writing,” recalls Woodson. “Lots and lots of books later, I am still surprised when I walk into a bookstore and see my name on a book or when the phone rings and someone on the other end is telling me I’ve just won an award. Sometimes, when I’m sitting at my desk for long hours and nothing’s coming to me, I remember my fifth-grade teacher, the way her eyes lit up when she said “This is really good.” The way, I — the skinny girl in the back of the classroom who was always getting into trouble for talking or missed homework assignments — sat up a little straighter, folded my hands on the desks, smiled, and began to believe in me.”

Emma Straub is the New York Times-bestselling author of six books for adults: the novels This Time Tomorrow, The Vacationers, Modern Lovers, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, and the short story collection Other People We Married. She is also the author of three picture books, the first of which, Very Good Hats, was published in January 2023. And her latest book, Gaga Mistake Day, will be published April 9, 2024! Her work has been published in more than 20 languages. Emma and her husband own Books Are Magic, an independent bookstore with two locations in Brooklyn, New York.

Nancy Paulsen has been with Penguin Books her entire career, starting as an assistant at Viking Children’s Books, serving as Publisher of Puffin Books and G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, and then starting her eponymous imprint in 2011. She specializes in editing picture books that are eye-opening and full of wonder, and fiction from diverse and distinct voices, especially stories that are inventive and emotionally satisfying. These are the kinds of books that often become classics and appear on state lists, generated by the votes of children. Some of the books she’s edited include National Book Award winner Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson; Coretta Scott King Award Winner Before the Ever After, Printz Honor Book winner Starfish by Lisa Fipps, Caldecott Honor Winner Wonder Walkers by Micha Archer, Pura Belpré Honor winner Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar, South Asia Book Award Winner Thirst by Varsha Bajaj, Walter Award winner The Bridge Home by Padma Venkatraman. New York Times Bestsellers include Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt; Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed, I Am Every Good Thing by Derrick Barnes and Gordon James and The Day You Begin by Jacqueline Woodson and Rafael Lopez.