SCCC Auxiliary Stuffs Community Clinic’s Stocking

Call it The Little Clinic That Could. And does. And did.

The South County Community Clinic--still a health care youngster, barely 8 years old--got a $30,000 stocking-stuffer this year, compliments of the SCCC Auxiliary.

The even-younger auxiliary (just 5) hosted a yule-themed fashion show at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point on Friday that drew a sold-out crowd of 536 and raised the welcome holiday booty.

“These women are incredible,” said the clinic’s executive director, Boetta Saunders, of the benefactors.

Stepping back from the fashionably turned-out lunch crowd, Saunders said the clinic, which provides health services for South County needy, costs $25,000 per month to run. “And that’s with 1,000 volunteer hours” donated each month, she said.

Gaye Birtcher, auxiliary board president and one of the group’s four founders, noted that about 800 patients used the clinic last month, contrasted with an estimated 1,000 patients during all of 1982, the facility’s first year in business.

Guests of the $45-per-ticket luncheon arrived at 11 a.m. and descended the Ritz’s spiral stairs to a lobby decked with six fireplace vignettes--gift-jammed conglomerations of silver and crystal and boughs and whatnot donated by the auxiliary members and raffled to lucky ticket-holders.

One guest hoping for a raffle windfall was Anita Scott, wife of L.A. Lakers star Byron Scott, whose charitable foundation contributes a substantial sum to the clinic each year.

Clutching a handful of raffle tickets, Scott said she and her husband were building an addition to their home “and we’re going to have a fireplace in the bedroom--so this could be great.”

Event chairwoman Mame Mertes pointed proudly to a picture frame in “The Heir Affair” vignette. Inside the frame was a photo of adorable tots, “three of my four grandchildren,” Mertes said.

Stylewise, the lunching ladies were individualists, sporting outfits ranging from Bernie Linn’s gold lame pantsuit to Margaret McMullan’s bright red St. John knit dress (with matching fire-engine hue hose, pumps, beaded necklace, earrings, lipstick and hair bow).

Mary Blake wore pale pink Victorian lace, quite a contrast to the togs chosen by her lunch partner Kathy Fritz: a snug red leather suit. “Doesn’t Santa wear red leather?” joked Fritz.

Lunch in the cobalt-and-white trimmed dining room, by the sides of a T-shaped runway, was a healthful marinated artichoke and asparagus salad, poached salmon in fennel sauce and (oops! there goes healthy!) white chocolate and Grand Marnier mousse cake.

Also attending were Donna Schuller, Liz Carlson, JoAnn Thomas, Betty Anne Klimkowski, Mindy Nelson, Murel Brown and Sheila Busch.