With $1.4 Million Raised, Arts Center Donors Prove Equal to the Challenge

Supporters of the Orange County Performing Arts Center have contributed nearly $1.4 million in 3 months, exceeding the terms of a $500,000 challenge grant from the Segerstrom Foundation, Center officials have announced.

In November, 1988, Henry Segerstrom, chairman of the Center’s board of directors, announced that the foundation would donate 50 cents for every dollar up to $1 million raised between Nov. 15, 1988, and Feb. 15, 1989.

With the Segerstrom grant and the donations themselves, the Center has received $1.897 million to be put toward the operating budget, according to Center spokesman Richard Bryant.

Among the 3,509 gifts to the drive were $602,000 from the Harry and Grace Steele Foundation and $100,000 from General and Mrs. William Lyon. Lyon, a vice chairman of the Center board and chairman of the performance fund, was recently designated to succeed Segerstrom as board chairman in 1990.

“Without question, this is the greatest response to a challenge, in terms of donor participation, since the Center began its campaign in 1979,” said Roger W. Johnson, vice chairman of the Center board.