Cook-Off at ‘Downtown Dollar Days’

* Downtown Dollar Days’ First Chili Cook-off was held Nov. 10 at the Westin Bonaventure. Executive committee members of the nonprofit organization (formed by a group of downtown professionals concerned with homelessness) are president Glenn Sonnenberg, vice president Michael Flynn, secretary Virginia Weathers and treasurer Susan Fine Kroll. The $60,000 raised at the cook-off will be divided equally between Chrysalis Center, Downtown Women’s Center, Las Familias Del Pueblo, Los Angeles Men’s Place and Ninth Street School Summer Day Camp, a service of Para Los Ninos.

* Andrew E. Stevens was honored at the Los Angeles Men’s ORT 10th annual Hannukah brunch Dec. 17 at the Century Plaza. The event, attended by more than 250 guests, raised a total of $198,000 that will be used to grant scholarships to ORT (Organization for Rehabilitation through Training) students in 31 countries.

* The Los Angeles Regional Foodbank received a check for $600,000 on Dec. 20 from the W. M. Keck Foundation for its capital campaign for a new headquarters and warehouse facility to be named the W. M. Keck Foundation Center.

* The “Phantom of the Opera” benefit sponsored by the Shanti Foundation Dec. 21 at the Ahmanson Theatre raised $75,000, which will be used to help people with AIDS through one-on-one support or small support groups throughout Los Angeles County. Barry Tannenbaum chaired the event.

* A grant of $15,829 was awarded the Asian American Drug Abuse Program Dec. 27 by the Nancy Reagan Foundation.

The money supports the program’s intervention and Asian Pacific outreach programs, and will help to cover purchases of videotapes and printing costs of a series of bilingual drug education brochures in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Tagalog, Vietnamese and Cambodian.

* The Jewish National Fund community Hanukkah dinner, held Dec. 28 at the Beverly Hilton, honored George and Janet Hecker with the “Tree of Life” award for their longtime support.

Proceeds from the event, which netted $72,000, will be used to replant the B’nai Brith forest near Jerusalem, established in memory of the murdered children of the Holocaust, and to replant the forest on Mt. Carmel in Haifa, Israel.