From Sake to Sushi at ARCS Fest

Samurai warriors and kimono-clad ladies will lead guests arriving for the ARCS (Achievement Rewards for College Scientists) Foundation Los Angeles Founder Chapter’s 30th anniversary celebration on May 21.

Gump’s will host the cocktail party, providing everything Asian from sake to sushi (and assorted Western hors d’oeuvres, champagne and caviar for the less adventurous). ARCS members, for sure, will be on a shopping spree for wedding and birthday gifts because Gump’s will give 10% of store sales that night to ARCS before the crowd walks to the Beverly Wilshire for dinner.

For the special anniversary, ARCS will honor Nobel laureate Donald J. Cram of UCLA as its 1988 Man of Science. KNBC-TV anchorman Jess Marlow will interview Cram for the audience.

Greeting the crowd will be ball chairman Sharon Swanton Black of Bel-Air and assistant ball chairman Rosemary Foster Herd of West Los Angeles.

Last year ARCS raised $383,000 for college students in the natural sciences, medicine and engineering, according to president Gay Goerz.

IT FLEW: What was the Los Angeles Orphanage Guild doing with numerologists, astrologers and handwriting experts at the Bistro Garden? Obviously it was Full Moon Madness. The soothsayers were telling all, the idea did fly, and the crowd loved it, jumping up between courses--even the steaming chocolate souffles--and returning to their tables to compare fortunes.

Having a very good time all evening were president Betty Strub and her husband, Bob. Chairman Anne McKinley and her co-chair, Jody Bergin, were taking the accolades for a fun night, Charles Bergesch, there with Mollie, for the flowers.

More in on the fun were Alice Avery, escorted by Jack Lindley, Marcus and Catherine Crahan, Lou Dougherty, Margaret Thalken, Rodney and Betty Williams, Gretchen and John Schumacher, Val Venneri, Betty and Kenneth Morgan (telling about routing lions from their tent with a flashlight when they were in Africa), Lucille Taylor and Loretta Young.

Most danced by moonlight to Clark Keen--a different mood from the elbow-to-elbow setting at the Bistro Garden on lunch-bunch days.

PAST PERFECT: Tulips, hydrangeas and azaleas were sprinkled throughout the Pasadena Hilton the other day at Villa Esperanza (Hope) Guild’s “Celebration of Life” spring luncheon.

As Marie Jones noted, the occasion is always upbeat, because the cause is so wonderful: Villa Esperanza helps the mildly retarded as well as the severely disabled, nurturing all ages from infancy to adulthood in education, vocational training and self-esteem. The theory: “Care and affection provide the basis for a happy life.” At the Infant Center, Villa uses “reverse mainstreaming” to introduce normal children into its preschool program. High school students use computers to learn money management and food preparation. Ten houses provide a home environment for 70 adults.

President Cynthia Lewis headed the luncheon committee, asking Wendy Rutledge to be mistress of ceremonies. More on the committee: Phyllis Hjelte, Virginia Sinclair, Jean Hanson, Dotty Greenawalt, Rose White, Helen Hubbard, Soflora Olson, Esther Cole, Ethel Stabile and Rebecca Flint.

Luncheon underwriter Alyce Williamson joined Sis Jones and a happy table with Madge Burford, Anne Neville, Jean Higgins and Veva McKee.

BUSY TOWN: The Blind Children’s Center 50th anniversary family picnic was at Calamigos Ranch in Malibu Canyon. Delta Gamma alumnae founded the center at 4120 Marathon St. . . .

The dinner roast for Dick Butkus at the Beverly Wilshire netted more than $50,000 for Retinitis Pigmentosa International. . . .

Lynn Klinenberg’s fund-raiser luncheon featuring Toni Grant and her new book, “On Being a Woman,” benefited the Diabetes Unit of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. . . .

The Los Angeles Mills College Alumnae benefit fashion show was at the Marina Beach Hotel, Nancy Revy chairing.

RED-LETTER DATES: UCLA’s Las Donas celebrates its 20th anniversary Tuesday with luncheon in Chancellor Charles Young’s garden--where he greeted the original group when he was incoming chancellor in 1968.

Harriet Alders will be installed new president. Some of the founders being honored include Gwen Bailey, Virginia Elder, Caroline Heyler, M’Lou Paullin, Mary Lou Steinmetz, Lorna Wallen. Las Donas conducts “friend raising,” rather than fund-raising. . . .

The Oralingua School for the Hearing Impaired goes on a hoot with a Western dinner/auction Saturday evening at the Westside Pavilion. Barbara Eden and country star Cliffie Stone star. . . .

And the Friends of Child Advocates party at a Western Round-up Under the Stars on Saturday at Rancho Los Lobos, the home of Marge and Bill MacLaughlin. Western duds, of course, say Molly Dolle, chairman, and Joan Aldrich, Joan MacLaughlin, Dolly Vinton and Jane West. . . .

Nolan Miller’s fashions are in the spotlight May 20 at the John Wayne Cancer Clinic Auxiliary’s annual membership luncheon at the Beverly Wilshire. . . .

THE STRONG: Group Effort had a $42,000 motor home to auction last year, and grossed $425,000. This year those big auction items were harder to capture (some say because of the new tax laws), and the gross was about $375,000, but there had been serious cost-cutting, so the net may not be that much less than last year.

Attendance was up 700 this year, over 630 last year. One woman was heard to comment at the benefit that her tax man told her it wouldn’t be to her benefit to bid--and she didn’t. Maybe next year, from the heart?