Charity Dinner Evolves Into a High-Level Occasion

Chris Darwin, great-great-grandson of naturalist Charles Darwin, has reached new heights in charitable fund raising. Darwin, who produces TV commercials, heads Social Climbers, a group that raises money for the Heart Foundation. Their latest adventure ended June 28 with feasting in top hats and tails atop Mt. Huascaran, a 22,205-foot mountain in Peru. Darwin, 28, provided details and photos of the event upon his return to his Sydney, Australia, home. Lightweight versions of Louis XIV furniture, candelabra, silver cutlery and crystal were hauled up the mountain for the banquet of chicken breast, smoked trout, vegetables, red wine and champagne. The team of nine spent nine days climbing, braving avalanches, subzero temperatures and ferocious winds. Despite their thermal underwear, Darwin said two in the group suffered hypothermia. The climb raised $20,000 for the Heart Foundation. “Anyone can throw a dinner party but not the way we do it,” he said. “Atmosphere is what makes a good dinner party.” An earlier Social Climbers’ feat was dining at a table suspended over a cliff in Sydney Harbor.

--Relatives of one of the world’s richest men are a bit poorer. Burglars stole $6.5 million worth of jewelry and cash from the London home of Prince Jefri Bolkiah, youngest brother of the 42-year-old Sultan of Brunei, Muda Hassanal Bolkiah, police said. The intruders entered through a first-floor window of the brick house in the north London district of East Finchley, said Detective Supt. David Staff of Scotland Yard. Police said details were being kept confidential at the sultan’s request. Newspaper reports said the burglars must have had intimate knowledge of the home’s security system. The sultan is worth an estimated $30 billion.

--Former Sen. Barry Goldwater, plagued for years with an arthritic knee and hip, was reported in good condition after corrective surgery last week. The 80-year-old Arizona Republican, who was the GOP’s presidential nominee in 1964, is doing “very, very well” and probably will be discharged in four to seven days, said Mary Starmann-Harrison, chief executive officer of St. Luke’s Medical Center in Phoenix. Goldwater underwent knee surgery at St. Luke’s in 1987 to relieve pain from a college football injury. He underwent hip operations in 1976, 1981 and 1986.