2nd Annual City of Lights Awards Dinner Honors Luminaries, Brings on the Fun

October 27, 2011 at 4:31 pm | Posted in LACBC Events | 4 Comments
Tags: city of lights, fundraisers, Mayor Villaraigosa

LACBC staff and City of Lights volunteers present CoL co-founder Allison Mannos with a new wheel with a light. Photo: Jonathan Yee, WYTe Studios

Last night, over 100 people gathered at La Fonda Supper Club for the 2nd Annual City of Lights Dinner and Benefit Concert! Together, we celebrated the nationally recognized City of Lights program that works to outreach to low-income, mostly Latino people who ride bikes.

Emceed by actress Miriam Isa, we celebrated the work of the City of Lights program, the people making CoL possible, and those working to improve the lives of the local Latino community. Lisa Waring of event sponsor GEK Law addressed the crowd. Last year’s City of Lights dinner honoree Councilmember Ed Reyes, welcomed the audience in the pre-taped video and lauded the City of Lights program for their work advocating for the 7th Street Bike Lane. We then honored Laura Torres, a native of Boyle Heights, with the Streetlight Award for her on-the-street efforts organizing DREAM Riders’ rides. Next up, we honored East Hollywood native Hector Tobar, a writer and columnist for the LA Times with the Shining Light Award for shining a light on the struggles of Latino immigrants. Mr. Tobar also provided a signed copy of his new book The Barbarian Nurseries for the live auction. Other live auction items included artwork, bikes from REI and Tern Bicycles, and a one-of-a-kind pine cone chandelier.

Hector Tobar is presented with the Shining Light Award. Photo: Andrew Wong, WYTe Studios

We heard from day laborer and one of the stars of our 7th Street Bike Lane video Jose on his experiences with the City of Lights program. Mayor Villaraigosa then addressed the crowd by video as he accepted the Leading Light award for being a leader in local bike advocacy. The LACBC staff and City of Lights volunteers then presented CoL co-founder and former LACBC employee Allison Mannos with a wheel with a built-in generator hub and light to for the work she’s done at LACBC and with CoL.

We ended the night by picking up goodies from the silent auction, mingling, and dancing the night away to the music of the mariachi group Trio Ellas.

Special thanks to our sponsors: BioLogic and Tern Bicycles; GEK Law; Kim and Lester Mannos; Lourdes Lopez, Locke and Lord Law Firm; Councilmember Ed P. Reyes; El Maestro Bicycle Shop; Cinco Puntos; Abel Valenzuela; Jay Slater; Clemente Gomez; and Hector Rodriguez.

Attendees get their party on! Photo: Andrew Wong, WYTe Studios

Thank you also to our in-kind donors who made both the live and silent auctions possible: Mia Nakano, Steve Boyd, Aaron Kuehn, Harpal Sodhi, Lalo Alcaraz, Kristen Erickson, Gustavo Muniz, Ken Haber, Tim Smith, Rome Gee, Center Theatre Group, Laemmle Theatres, Orange 20 Bicycles, Ernesto Vasquez, Scoops Ice Cream Shop, Lourdes Lopez, Kelly Martin, the Bicycle Kitchen, Steve Mattson, Allen Bleyle, Brenda Yancor, Silver Lake Wine, REI, Michelle Quinones-Chino, the Ortheum Theatre, Big 5 Sport Goods, the BiciDignarios, Louise Marler, Kelly Cruz, Eric Almanza, Colin Bogart, Raquel Trinidad, and Margie Mannos.

Thank you to all who attended; the volunteers and City of Lights committee who put this together; the honorees; our emcee Miriam Isa; La Fonda Supper club; WYTe Studios photography; and all of City of Lights’ supporters. We’ll see you next year!

Read more about the night in Spanish in El Pasajero! See photos from the event on our Facebook Fan Page.

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