Association celebrates 125 years with book signing

The American Assn. of University Women-Laguna Beach Branch celebrates the American Assn. of University Women’s 125th anniversary on Nov. 11.

The American Assn. of University Women is one of the oldest nonprofit organizations dedicated to advocating for women’s rights. The organization was founded Nov. 28, 1881 by 17 women college graduates.

The group has fought for pay equity, a woman’s right to vote and legislation that protects women at home, in schools and in the workplace. It has also provided research about women and higher education, sexual harassment and work-place equity.

The Laguna Beach branch is a group of women in the arts, education, business, science, law and community affairs, working to empower women and girls through education to reach their full potential.

The group organizes two volunteer tutoring programs at the elementary school level, sponsors two or more seventh-grade girls at a week-long science camp in the summer and provides scholarships to high school girls to further their education at a two- or four-year college.

The group will mark the anniversary with a book signing at 10:30 a.m. Nov. 11 at Laguna Beach Books, 1212 South Coast Highway.

Gene Kraig, an award-winning writer and three-time Fellowship award-winning artist, will sign “The Sentence: A Family’s Prison Memoir,” released by Greenpoint Press in March 2006.

Kraig chronicles the years leading up to and through her attorney husband’s incarceration — after being prosecuted by the Internal Revenue Service for tax fraud committed while representing a pornographer — and the effects on her family.

Cake and coffee to celebrate the association’s anniversary will be served. For more information, visit www.aauw-lagunabeach.org.