For Immediate Release
Office of the First Lady
June 12, 2006

Remarks by the First Lady at the Senate Spouses Luncheon
The East Room

1:29 P.M. EDT

MRS. BUSH: All right, welcome again. I want to thank every one of you for the donation that you all made to the Laura Bush Foundation for America's Libraries -- especially for the Gulf Coast Library Recovery initiative. That you all would give your dresses to be auctioned is so sweet and so personal. And I don't know if everyone knows, but the auction of the dresses raised about a little over $16,000, I think. So that's great. (Applause.)

That money will go to make sure Gulf Coast libraries can build their library collections again as each one of the Gulf Coast schools that was either damaged or destroyed open again, starting, hopefully, in September, another big group of them will open.

So thank you very, very much for your gift to the children of the Gulf Coast. And especially thank you for honoring me that way. I really appreciate it.

Now we're so excited to have the Tony Award winners, the Jersey Boys. (Applause.)

END 1:30 P.M. EDT