The co-founder of Lawry’s Restaurants helped build AbilityFirst 100 years ago. Join the centennial celebration June 7 in South Pasadena.
Before the Lawry’s prime rib became a landmark on La Cienega Boulevard in Beverly Hills, before the seasoned salt found its way into a million American kitchens, Lawrence L. Frank made a different kind of commitment — one that had nothing to do with food and everything to do with who gets a seat at the table. In 1926, Frank and fellow Rotarian Paul Dietrich looked at a city being quietly devastated by the pre-vaccine polio epidemic and asked a question most of their contemporaries weren’t asking: what happens to the children a prosperous city leaves behind?
What they built to answer that question became AbilityFirst. One hundred years later, it’s still answering it.
A founding story hiding in plain sight
The organization they established that year — originally called the Crippled Children’s Society of Southern California, founded through the Los Angeles Rotary Club — has spent a century evolving to meet the needs of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities across Southern California. It adopted the name AbilityFirst in 2000, a change that reflected not just a rebranding but a fundamental shift in how the organization understood its mission: away from limitation, toward capability.
The centennial is the occasion.
The Lawry’s and Rotary connection is the story most people in Los Angeles don’t know they’re standing inside. The Frank Family — direct descendants of Lawrence L. Frank — will be honored at AbilityFirst’s 52nd Annual Food and Wine Festival on Sunday, June 7, 2026 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Urquhart Residence in South Pasadena. They are being recognized not for a single donation or a sponsorship cycle, but for a hundred years of sustained commitment that began before most of the organizations on the night’s sponsor wall existed.
Joining them among the evening’s honorees: Comerica Bank, recognized for more than fifteen years of partnership supporting employment, education, and community connection for people with disabilities; the Rotary Club of Los Angeles, whose civic leadership traces back to AbilityFirst’s own founding in 1926; and Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, honored for her sustained advocacy for people with disabilities across the county and her longstanding connection to the organization.
The evening will be hosted by Tal Anderson — autistic actor, advocate, and a cast member of HBO Max’s The Pitt and Netflix’s Atypical — whose work in Hollywood centers on disability rights and authentic representation both on screen and behind the camera. The fit between host and event is not incidental.
What AbilityFirst actually does
AbilityFirst supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities — and their families — through programs built around independence, social connection, and personal growth. With more than 250 employees and program centers throughout Greater Los Angeles, plus a fully accessible sleepaway camp in the San Bernardino National Forest, the organization provides life-changing opportunities that help individuals build confidence and experience belonging — not as recipients of charity, but as full participants in community life. That framing is the through-line from Frank and Dietrich’s founding impulse to the work being done today.
“What began as a small community effort has grown into an organization that changes thousands of lives each year. As we celebrate our centennial, we are especially proud to recognize the extraordinary partners and leaders whose support has helped make our mission possible and continue to expand opportunities for the people and families we serve.”
Sergio Rizzo-Fontanesi
President and CEO, AbilityFirst
Proceeds from the Food and Wine Festival go directly toward those programs. Every bottle poured, every plate passed, funds the next hundred years of that work.
The table itself
The evening earns its Food and Wine billing. Caymus Vineyard and Riboli Family Wines anchor the wine program. Dulce Vida Tequila, Empress 1908 Gin, and Old Hillside Bourbon Company cover spirits with real range. CELSIUS and PepsiCo round out the beverage side.
On food: El Cholo Pasadena and Tam O’Shanter — two of the city’s most enduring restaurant institutions — are both in the room. Gale’s Restaurant, Kensington Caterers, Pez Coastal Kitchen, Stems + Neighbors and Friends, and Neighbors and Friends: The Kitchen fill out a culinary program that reflects the genuine depth of the LA dining scene. Nothing Bundt Cakes closes the evening correctly.
The sponsor roster reflects the depth of AbilityFirst’s civic relationships. Centennial Sponsor Comerica Bank and Platinum Sponsor Lawry’s Restaurants lead. Gold Sponsors include Crimson IT and Bank of America. Silver Sponsors — Columbia Bank, Chubb, Copperpoint, The Fletcher Jones Foundation, Landegger and Verano, Envision Consulting, Wimmer Associates, and Bocarsly Emden Cowan Esmail and Arndt LLP — make up a bench that signals genuine institutional investment in the mission.
Why this centennial is worth paying attention to
Most nonprofits don’t make it to a hundred years. The ones that do have survived by staying adaptive without losing the original impulse — which is considerably harder than it sounds. AbilityFirst’s evolution from a Rotary Club response to a polio epidemic in 1926 to a 250-employee organization serving families across Southern California suggests it has managed that balance. The Food and Wine Festival, now in its 52nd year, is its own kind of proof: an annual gathering that has outlasted trends, economic cycles, and the short attention span that tends to afflict civic philanthropy.
Tickets are available at abilityfirst.org/festival.
What is AbilityFirst and who does it serve?
AbilityFirst is a Southern California nonprofit founded in 1926 — originally as the Crippled Children’s Society of Southern California — that supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. With more than 250 employees and program centers throughout Greater Los Angeles, it provides programs focused on independence, social connection, and personal growth.
Who founded AbilityFirst and what is the Lawry’s Restaurants connection?
Lawrence L. Frank, co-founder of Lawry’s The Prime Rib, and fellow Rotarian Paul Dietrich co-founded AbilityFirst in 1926 — then called the Crippled Children’s Society of Southern California — in response to the pre-vaccine polio epidemic. The Frank Family continues to support the organization a century later and will be honored at the 2026 Food and Wine Festival.
When and where is the AbilityFirst Food and Wine Festival 2026?
The 52nd Annual AbilityFirst Food and Wine Festival takes place Sunday, June 7, 2026 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the Urquhart Residence in South Pasadena, California.
Tickets are available at abilityfirst.org/festival.
