The Catalyst Foundation, together with Humanitarian Services for the Children of Vietnam, invites you to join us for our “Take a Chance on Me” Annual Benefit Dinner on Friday – December 6. 2002, at 5:30 p.m., in the Great Hall, US Bank Trust Center Building, Lowertown – 180 East Fifth Street – St. Paul, Minnesota

The Honored Guest Speaker, Kien Nguyen, is the Author of “The Unwanted” and “The Tapestries.” Kien Nguyen grew up an outsider in his native land. His once wealthy family, thrust into poverty at the dawn of a new political regime, lived amongst neighbors who treated them as pariahs, unwelcome remnants the colonial past. Kien himself, a child of mixed race (his father was American), was among the most unwanted. Told with a stark, poetic brilliance, Kien’s account of his early years-from the fall of Saigon, when at age eight he watched the last U.S. Army helicopter leave without him and his family, to his eventual escape-is a work of profound emotional resonance, at once harrowing and inspiring. “The Unwanted” unforgettably records a universal human experience played out in extreme circumstances: the forging of an identity, a life. Kien Nguyen left Vietnam in 1985 through the United States’ Orderly Departure Program. After spending time at a refugee camp in the Philippines, Nguyen arrived in the United States. He now lives in New York City.

That evening, we’ll also be honoring the following people: Catalyst Foundation Community Award Recipient: John A. Gappa, Senior

Vice President and CFO, Universal Hospital Services, Bloomington, MN

Catalyst Foundation Service Award Recipient: Julie Hessler, Vietnam

Adoption Specialist, Children’s Home Society of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN

Cost for the evening is $55 per person and includes the meal; register online at www.catalystfoundation.org