Our Laguna: Boys & Girls Club gets funding boost
The Boys & Girls Club set a goal of $150,000 for its 10th annual Art of Giving Gala at the Montage Resort & Spa and more than succeeded.
“We exceeded our goal by $25,000,” said Michelle Ray, club development director. “More people attended and more became Shining Stars with $250 donations that go directly to help kids participate in programs.”
The event included cocktails for folks perusing the silent auction items in a room off the ballroom courtyard or out on the lawn under a late day sun, dinner, a live auction emceed by Bree Burgess Rosen, entertainment by club members, presentation of the Teen Youth of the Year, Kelsey Laroche, and dancing to the music of Tunes of Hollywood Nights.
Kelsey was 7 in 2000 when she joined the club, which is so proud of her recent acceptance into Chapman University’s film school.
The silent auction items were beautifully displayed in baskets arranged by the BGs, a club support group, including Karen Jaffe, who also sponsored a table with her husband, Jon. Nancy Farrand also helped out.
Among the silent auction items were paintings by club members Andrea Coburn, 12; Maggie Zegowitz, 6; Zoe Payne-Carter, 7; Madison Stevens, 9; Autumn McQuaid, 8; Beth Molina, 10; Allie Ricci-Fischer, 12; Kenneth Cho, 7; Christina Darby, 10; Angelique Begay, 10; and Axl Dominguez, 13.
Local painters Hedy Buzan and John Eagle, gallery owners Charles Michael Murray and Robert Wyland, Lyn A. Burke and Daryle Lynn Cornelison also donated art.
Sandra and David Stone, Dorene and Lee Butler,and RCC Inc. were major sponsors of the event.
Table sponsors included club board member Donnie Crevier, with whom Michelle and Councilman Kelly Boyd were seated. The councilman and Crevier have been pals since they went to the club when it was only for boys.
Other table sponsors included Kirsten and club board President Bob Whalen, Jim and club Vice President Kelly Mazzo, board member Paula Hornbuckle, Hearts of Montage, Dynamic Auto Images, Sorrento Grille, ICC Collision Centers, Murr & Associates and Betsy and Dr. Gary Jenkins.
Tables were also sponsored by board members Dan Burge and Keith Gallo,and their respective wives, Jennifer and Julie, Lyn and Rick Balzer, Lynne and Mike Lake and friends, David Howard, Don Mook, Moss Adams, Lyn and Tim Carlyle, the Weeks family, Union Bank, En Pointe Technologies, Auction in Motion-Norwalk, the Crevier Team, Crevier vendors and Crevier friends.
Architect Morris Skenderian and his wife, Stephany, were seated at the Carlyles’ table.
“I have always been a supporter of the Boys & Girls Club,” Skenderian said. “I was on the Building Committee for the new addition.
“It would be great to be involved with every group in town, but that would be a full-time job.”
The mission of the Boys & Girls Club of Laguna Beach is to enable all young people, especially those most in need, to realize their full potential as healthy, caring and responsible adults.
Originally on Main Beach, the club moved to Laguna Canyon Road and later merged with the Girls Club to operate two facilities: the Main Branch in the canyon, open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the school year and from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the summer; and the TLC Branch, on Temple Terrace, above Bluebird Park, open the same hours.
Donations are always appreciated. For more information, call (949) 494-2535.
Hats off
The annual Friends of the Library fundraiser, “Ladies who lunch — and read,” was a financial and sartorial success.
Money raised at the luncheon, at Sapphire in the Old Potter Place for the second year, will help buy books and pay for improvements for the impoverished library — Councilwoman Jane Egly, who represents the city on the county Library Advisory Board said at Tuesday’s meeting that the system is really squeezed.
Beautifully hatted women attended the luncheon to share their favorite books and hear about others.
“I wasn’t a reader — I read slowly and didn’t remember much — until a trial that was all over television and I read 23 books,” said Vicki De Reyna.
She recommended “Measure of Everything,” a biography of the metric system and “Wine and War,” about how Germany impoverished the French through wine.
“A fabulous book,” said Jane Hanauer, who should know. She owns Laguna Books.
Realtor and philanthropist Bobbi Cox recently discovered the books of Elizabeth George. Cox has read and enjoyed “No One as Witness” and “What Came Before He Shot Her,” earlier publications, but not the first in the series.
Laguna Beach Visitors Bureau President Karyn Philippsen recommended a book on India’s official Kite Day, photographs taken from a balloon with text about what is happening on the ground.
“It’s a coffee table book but worth looking at,” Philippsen said.
But it wasn’t all about books.
A Fortuny pleated turban, circa 1910, won the prize for best hat. A straw hat trimmed with figures from “The Wizard of Oz,” won second prize. Mayor Elizabeth Pearson’s black-and-red straw took third place. Other notable chapeaus were perched on the heads of Studio Arts gallery owner Rebecca Barber, Sandra Hovanesian, Peggy Ford, Kim Salter and Cherry Spitaleri, wearing a Greek fisherman’s cap.