Liberty Hill Foundation Dinner Celebrates People Who've Made a Difference in L.A. 

Stephanie J. Gaines
Mirror contributing writer

A gaggle of bright lights and young girls circled Matt Damon and Ben Affleck last Thursday evening at The Beverly Hilton Hotel, where the two actors served as presenters at the Liberty Hill Foundation's seventeenth annual Upton Sinclair Dinner. Long hailed as the 'best dinner in town', each year this Santa Monica-based organization fetes individuals who have helped make a definitive difference in the lives of Angelenos. This year's Award Recipient (and no less swarmed than Damon and Affleck) was renowned historian and writer Howard Zinn, author of The People's History of the United States. A number of community activists were also celebrated, and a bit of Hollywood flair mixed with grass-roots concern for social welfare created a warm evening of colorful speeches and anecdotal moments. Click here for Photos.

Sylvia Castillo whose considerable community-based credits include co-founding the Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment in South L.A., received the ChangeMaker Award. The award was presented by Los Angeles City Council member Mark Ridley Thomas. "Tonight we honor those who have been chased down by history," said Castillo, who, as the evening's first award recipient, seemed to sum up the spirit of the dinner. As the first Latino family to move into the then all-white neighborhood of Lakewood, Castillo was galvanized into her career at a young age as she watched her neighbors organize a petition to push her family, referred to as "wetbacks", from the community. While still in her teens, Castillo became involved with Cesar Chavez' United Farm Workers campaign to organize poor, immigrant farm workers during its heyday. She went on to pursue her education, earn a degree as a vocational nurse, and later became involved in developing a progressive, community movement to address the "War on Drugs". The Doors' drums man John Dunsmore presented the Founder's Award to Daniel and Diana Attias. Daniel currently serves as a producer/director on Party of Five, Diana's work includes script writing and serving as book editor for Lucas Films.

Together, they have supported a host of community organizations throughout Los Angeles' Westside. Within the Liberty Hill Foundation, the Attias' conceived and launched the Social Entrepreneurial Fund, supporting community-based and cooperatively-owned businesses that provide jobs and job-training for low-income people. The Creative Vision Award was awarded to Dan Pallotta, who started one of the most rigorous, successful fundraisers in history, the California AIDS Ride. Created in 1994 at the height of the AIDS epidemic, the first event raised $1.6 million; the 1999 AIDS Ride, held this month, raised $11.2 million. Dan and his company, Pallotta TeamWorks, have taken the AIDS Rides to major cities throughout the United States; this year, they expect to hit the $100 million mark on behalf of dozens of AIDS service organizations. "Change, not Charity" is the philosophy behind this 22-year old organization, said Liberty Hill's Torie Osborn, who serves as Executive Director. Osborne spoke on a personal and professional level about the goals of the foundation. Since its days of inception, the Liberty Hill Foundation has provided approximately $7 million in grants to some of the most cutting-edge social change initiatives in Los Angeles and grants are targeted toward projects lacking access to traditional funding sources. Speaking of the growth of Liberty Hill over the past two decades, its members, and the evening's honorees, Osborn commented, "Perhaps this millennium will make the 1960's seem like the 1950's." 

And finally, with the presence of the big-screen stars they are, and the downright neighborliness that comes from living just a few homes away on a quiet street back East, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck presented Howard Zinn with the Upton Sinclair Award. Honored for his role, spanning nearly 50 years, of playing a pivotal role in almost every struggle against injustice in this country, as a historian, Zinn has chronicled the civil rights movement in the South, the anti-war protests of the '60's, the "no-nukes" movement of the '70's and the Central American solidarity movement of the '80's. His award-winning, ground-breaking book, The People's History of the United States, published in 1980, profiled the ordinary people of the U.S., and their courage working to correct the wrongs encountered in their day-to-day lives. The book has sold more than a half million copies, has been translated into six languages, and is currently being developed as a television mini-series with Damon and Affleck to star. With humility and reverence, Zinn spoke of his life's work, his inspiration for writing this tome ("My wife, typically a gentle woman, who said, "You have to do this, or you don't eat."), and of the now-renowned references his book received in “Good Will Hunting”: "Matt was merely repaying me for the cookies I gave him when he came to my house." 

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