Receiving commendation from the City of Los Angeles, from left are: Kanan Hamzeh, president; Dr. Hanna Shammas, chairman; Councilman Denis Zein; Hon. Charbel Wehbi, Consul General of Lebanon, and Rachid Eletel, banquet chairman.

Toward Building the House of Lebanon

The Lebanese American Foundation held its annual banquet in Los Angeles to help raise funds for the House of Lebanon project.
The Hon. Charbel Wehbi, Consul General of Lebanon, congratulated the board members and the Lebanese American Foundation, adding, "Whenever I have the privilege to attend your celebrations, I realize how much you are still attached to our roots, to our moral values and principles that you have inherited from the land of our ancestors."
The master of ceremonies was Dr. Fred Milkie and he brightened and cheered the audience with his jokes and his introductions.
"Our young adults are getting organized and are moving forward," said Dr. Hanna Shammas, chairman of the board. "It is delightful to see our children stepping up to the plate and preparing for their eventual role as the future leaders of our community."
Dr. Shammas quoted from several poets to talk about the realizing the dream of the House of Lebanon. "The American poet Carl Sandburg once said, ‘Nothing happens unless first a dream,’" he said. "The concept of the House of Lebanon indeed started as a dream in the minds of a few dedicated American Lebanese."
The evening’s guest speaker was Dr. Joseph Aoun, Dean of the USC College of Letters, Arts & Sciences, who stressed the role of the youth.
"There are two things we can give our children," Aoun said, quoting from the House of Lebanon’s website, "wings and roots."
Aoun received his Ph.D. from the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981. As an internationally known scholar on linguistics, Aoun has made major contributions to his field, publishing seven books and writing more than 40 articles.
The USCB Middle East Ensemble provided the entertainment for the evening with Dr. Scott Marcus as the director. Zeina Hamzeh also spoke as the Young Adults representative.
The mission of the Lebanese American Foundation includes the goals to showcase our Lebanese culture with the creation of a cultural center, to cater to the needs of the Lebanese American community with the creation of a community center, to bring together all Lebanese and Lebanese Americans living in Southern California, to cater to our youth and organizing special social and educational programs for them, to conduct educational programs that may benefit the new immigrants and the American children of Middle Eastern ancestry (and) to establish health programs to combat certain diseases that might be more prevalent in our community."
Their hope is to achieve these goals and programs through one location known as the House of Lebanon, a building that will serve primarily as a cultural and community center.
In establishing this center, the House of Lebanon hopes to accomplish its mission which is "to secure a roof neutral from religious and political influence under which people from our community and their friends meet, socialize, network and share knowledge about Lebanon’s unique culture."
"The House of Lebanon will soon become a reality and we invite you all to get on the bandwagon so we can all transcend over our minute differences and unite for the greater cause of glorifying our Lebanese culture," said Dr. Shammas.
Among House of Lebanon’s Honorary Board of Directors, are: Dr. Ray R. Irani, chairman, Dr. Joseph J. Jacobs, and George Hage. The House Of Lebanon Executive Committee are: Dr. Hanna Shammas, chairman; Kanan Hamzeh, president; and Rachid Eletel, chief financial officer and the banquet chairman.
For more information or to contribute to this nonprofit organization, visit the website at: www.houseoflebanon.com.