Cystic Fibrosis Guild Sambas to Good News
If the “Investor’s Ball” sounds a mite deadly--three-piece suits, time-pieces, NYSE highs and lows, that sort of thing--forget it.
Last year, the ball, sponsored by the Cystic Fibrosis Guild of Orange County, was a till-all-hours New Year’s affair at the Ritz-Carlton in Laguna Niguel. Saturday night, the guild samba’d up the coast to the Newport Marriott--for “Bossa Rio” and one of the liveliest, most colorful parties of the year.
There was definitely cause to celebrate.
“An incredible breakthrough,” said Robert Dresing, president of National Cystic Fibrosis in Rockville, Md., “our first in 30 years.”
Dresing was only obliquely referring to an announcement Oct. 10--that researchers had isolated the DNA segment containing the cystic fibrosis gene.
“Since that announcement--and nobody knows this yet except you here tonight--we’ve since identified the chromosome that it’s on,” said Dresing. “We haven’t yet found the gene, but we now know where to look. We’ve eliminated 99% of the hunt.
“And I can tell you that within a month there will be another, equally exciting announcement. We’re on our way to unraveling the mystery of this horrible disease. When we do, we’ll be looking at a very different world. And we’ll have another party over that, believe me.”
Fit Right In
It was obvious the gentleman from Rockville was going to fit right in with the Newport fete set, which at that point was enjoying exotic cocktails in hollowed-out coconuts and pineapples, bidding on silent auction items and soaking in the sounds of the pool-side steel drum band that filled the night air.
Upstairs, the ball, which attracted more than 400, continued with dinner, dancing, a comedian and a live auction.
“I want to welcome all you good-looking fund-raisers,” said Renee West, who, with her husband Leland, co-chaired the event with Richard and Kathy Hurwitz. “We have two purposes here tonight--to raise as much money as we can for CF, and to put on a great party for all of you.”
West, Hurwitz & Co. succeeded on both counts: The party raised $148,870.23, according to guild board adviser Barbara Yanchar. “That’s net,” Yanchar said, “and still coming.”
Between bites of fruit salad--kiwi and guava and tropical what-have-yous--Dick Stevens eyed the exotic feathered ‘n’ spangled eat-your-heart-out-Carmen-Miranda gowns of the women on the dance floor. “I’d say there’re a few dollars floating around this room,” he said.
The men, too, seemed especially festive: Robert Baker of West Los Angeles, for instance, wore a bow tie with blinking lights his wife had ordered for him through a joke catalogue. “We also got the frog hat,” confided Bonnie Baker as the pair broke into a rumba. Also dancing a Latin mean streak were Yolanda Biewers--the life of any party--and her husband Fred, a dentist.
Entertain Each Other
As a rule, CF supporters keep each other pretty well entertained; in any case, they certainly didn’t need any help from comedian Billy Vader. “Geez, this is like working in the middle of a subway station,” Vader admitted.
They found the live auction, conducted by former child evangelist-turned-actor Marjoe Gortner, more thrilling.
Among the highlights was Dr. Michael Elam’s cosmetic surgery package. The auctioneer’s chant went something like this: “Everybody say Hallelujah! You’re gonna look good! Everything’s gonna come up! There are people here tonight who can give great testimonial! I want to see the finished product! I want to see the before and after! Elam’s a good man! He’s gonna be a- sculp- turing!”
A bid of $10,000 secured the item for Pam Jantz. “I’m going to use it myself,” she admitted, smiling. “But not on everything.”
Kathy Hurwitz was responsible for the splendid palm trees-and-balloons decor. She personally assembled the centerpieces, ceramic toucans and parrots atop ferns; silk butterflies clung to the napkins, each a different color cloth.
Wanted Monkeys
“I wanted to do monkeys swinging on vines for the ceiling,” said the irrepressible Hurwitz in her New Jersey twang, “a whole jungle theme. Then they tell me there’s a wedding here today. So I’m in here all day in this dirty jump suit, and the wedding party keeps looking at me, like who is this joker, right? So I tell them, ‘Listen, eat, drink, have a wonderful time. But be out of here by 4:30.’ I think I intimidated them. They were out by 4.
“Then the Marriott felt so badly about my not being able to do the ceiling because of the wedding, they gave us these nice tablecloths. First they said we’d have to pay $10 each for cleaning fee. I told them I wasn’t paying anything. And here they are.”
The so-called Ritz Raiders, a small band of plucky hustlers within the guild, also contributed to the success of the event. In recent weeks, the Raiders, among them Renee West and guild corresponding secretaries Ann Stern and Susanne Devlin, could be found almost every night at the Ritz Restaurant in Newport Beach.
“We’d file into the Ritz, and when all the big rollers came in, we’d hit ‘em up,” Hurwitz recalled; she herself sold 40 raffle tickets at $100 each. The prize was a 1986 Jaguar XJ6 donated by the Wests, who own Newport Imports.
But the distinction of most raffle tickets sold went to Michael Parker, president of a local bank equipment leasing company, who sold 100 tickets in four days.
Parker also:
- Announced, before the raffle was drawn, that he and Bill Lilly, a real estate developer in Long Beach, would match and donate to CF the dollar amount of any more tickets sold that night; the pair inspired the sale of 52 tickets.
- Bought a ticket for each of his sisters; sibling Kathleen Kucera of Connecticut now drives a Jag.
- Bought two of the live auction items: a full-length fox coat and a trip to Hawaii.
- Donated a Christmas goose dinner for 22 at the Ritz, which brought $2,500.
David and Sue Hook were recipients of the CF Foundation’s Breath of Life Award.
Sue Hook began her work for CF as a teen-ager. “I was in high school and some friends and I formed a club to raise money for CF,” she recalled. “We called ourselves ‘The Conquerettes,’ because we thought maybe our bake sale money might conquer CF. (They sold doughnuts.) At that age you’re very naive.
“But that was 20 years ago. The life span for a CF patient then was five years. Now, because of our research program, which is funded by evenings such as this, the average life span is 21 years.”
Attending were guild president Terry Miller, treasurer Carl Yanchar, dinner committee co-chairmen Horace and Beverly Thompson Coil and major underwriters Bob Guzman, Dean Gerrie and Rene Vega. Angel second baseman Bobby Grich and Rams safety Nolan Cromwell were also there.
