Charity League Has a Ball for 24 Debutantes
Thank heaven for little girls! For little girls get bigger every day . . .
--Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe
from “Gigi” (1958)
Some of those little girls grow up and become debutantes.
Saturday evening in the Westin South Coast Plaza Ballroom, 24 young women representing the Newport chapter of National Charity League were introduced at the league’s 25th anniversary Debutante Ball.
John O’Donnell introduced chapter president Rhoda Stanley and ball director Barbara Johnson, then the debutantes. The ball is the debs’ night of recognition, as it has been for a quarter of a century.
On the elevated stage, as the drapes quietly opened, each debutante, dressed in a floor-length white gown, long white gloves, a gold and pearl medallion around her neck--honoring her years of community service--and holding a satin muff, made her traditional St. James’ bow. As her favorite song was played by the Ron Rubin Orchestra--one deb chose “Anchors Aweigh”--the debutante descended the steps to the waiting arm of her father, who then escorted her down the long red carpet to the other end of the ballroom.
The dance floor filled with fathers and daughters. Escorts, each carrying a long-stemmed white rose, then cut in on the fathers, to whom they gave the roses. The fathers in turn gave the roses to the mothers.
A debut in the National Charity League comes after six years of volunteer service as a Ticktocker, lending support to such organizations as High Hopes, Golden Timers Senior Center, American Cancer Society, Candystripers of Hoag Hospital and Canyon Acres.
The league, referred to as a “unique mother-daughter philanthropic organization committed to community involvement and volunteerism,” is not entirely free of the “doting mother” syndrome when it comes to making sure that the “right impressions” are made: Several strict rules are adhered to by the committee.
No photos are allowed during the presentation, dinner or after dinner by either guests or press (although one guest was observed videotaping the event). “Too distracting with all those flashbulbs going off,” one committee member said.
No interviews are permitted with the debutantes before their presentation. “It’s just not allowed” was the reason given by ball director Johnson.
Time was allotted for press interviews and photographs during the second day of dress rehearsals, when frayed nerves and short tempers were rearing their nasty heads and everyone involved couldn’t wait to leave. Fathers were told not to be in the photographs; photographers were told whom they could photograph--and how, which at least some photographers chose to ignore.
Debutantes were presented in alphabetical order: Kimberly Akin, Lindsay Alstrom, Janet Bielen, Jill Bell, Susan Bradbury, Kathryn Brown, Cameron Doder, Tracy Evans, Joanne Ferda, Joanne Goody, Pauline Hanson, Julia Hochadel, Dana Jackson, Ana( Jeppe, Kelly Kopp, Kristin Lowder, Heather Manclark, Cynthia Martin, Amy McClellan, Molly McGrath, Beth Merry, Kristen Milum, Cynthia Palmer and Megan Tingler.
The presentations were delayed, but few of the 486 guests seated in the ballroom could have known why: The fathers, in an upstairs suite, had been ordered to evacuate because of a fire alarm (a false one); in the course of the evacuation, the elevators stopped working for several minutes--with some of the dads inside.