WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. (November 14, 2024) – The Library Foundation’s inaugural Benjamin Franklin Award for Excellence was presented to Dianne Bernstein at the annual Food for Thought Dinner. The Foundation’s premier fundraising event was held Saturday, November 2, 2024, at The Beach Club, Palm Beach.

The Chair of the Board of Directors, Steven Mayans, shared that “usually, a grateful organization bestows upon a singular person its most prestigious award. Because we did not yet have such an award, the Board of Directors created the Benjamin Franklin Award of Excellence, allowing us to publicly recognize an exceptional individual who makes a significant contribution towards advancing the mission of the WPB Library Foundation. That person is Dianne Bernstein.”

“Dianne Bernstein was selected as the first recipient of this esteemed award because of her long-time service as a career educator, library enthusiast, and nonprofit leader,” CEO Dean Dimke explained.

In her remarks in accepting the award, Bernstein said, “My life’s focus has been a shared love of education and literacy, and dedication to the programs the West Palm Beach Library Foundation offers to the community through the Mandel Public Library.”

Dianne taught high school English for 28 years to disadvantaged students. She served as a board member of the Library of Philadelphia and a Trustee of its Foundation; while in Manalapan, she founded a monthly lecture series; and in West Palm Beach, she was a library volunteer, board member and is the immediate-past Board chair. She established the foundation’s Giving Society and Food for Thought, the premier fundraising event, as well as the concept for the Yacht Cruise and Dream Auction, our second largest fundraiser.

Why the Benjamin Franklin namesake? He is the father of the modern public library.  He was also one of the Founding Fathers of the United States and among the most prominent intellectuals of his time. It is a telling historical fact – that Benjamin Franklin was the only person to have signed all three of the most important documents of our country’s founding - the Declaration of Independence in 1776; the Treaty of Paris in 1783; and the United States Constitution in 1787. “The custom-designed Benjamin Franklin Award for Excellence is engraved with Franklin’s quote of “Well done is better than well said,” stated Dimke. Those words aptly fit Dianne Bernstein.

About the West Palm Beach Library Foundation

The Mandel Public Library offers life-changing programs, services, and resources to children, teens, and adults in our community, all free of charge thanks to the financial support provided by the West Palm Beach Library Foundation. The Foundation hopes to create an inspired community where children excel, and adults thrive. Gifts to the Foundation support popular library programs including afterschool homework centers, summer learning programs, reading programs, teen college prep, job readiness, and adult programs in art, technology, education, culture, and entertainment.