Ball Raises Record Total for Children’s Home : Charity: Ben Vereen headlines an event producing $1.45 million in pledges for Orangewood, which will help pay for more bed capacity and room for 38 babies.

Entertainer Ben Vereen supports a host of charitable causes, but when he was asked also to perform at Saturday night’s record-breaking fund-raiser for Orange County’s home for abandoned and abused children, he said he could not refuse.

“Today’s cry (from children) is much louder than anything we have heard before,” Vereen said in an interview before the event. “If we don’t do something to encourage them, to motivate them, to build self-esteem, then we’re a lost nation.”

Vereen was the featured performer at the 6th annual Orange Blossom Ball, which raised a record $1.45 million to benefit the Orangewood Children’s Home.

The money will be used to expand the home for abandoned, abused and neglected children, said William Steiner, executive director of Orangewood Children’s Foundation.

“We’re going to add three additional cottages and expand the infant care center for drug babies,” he said before the ball.

The additional cottages, each housing 22 children, would increase Orangewood’s capacity from 166 beds to 235 beds. In addition, the infant center capacity would rise to 38 babies from the current maximum of 14. The $3.75-million project, entitled Vision 2000, is expected to begin in August.

Vereen, dressed in a brown sweater, white pants and sandals while he relaxed in his 14th-floor suite in the Irvine Hilton and Towers, said he enjoys helping to raise money for such causes.

He also works to combat leukemia, sickle cell anemia, heart disease and AIDS and recently founded Celebrities for a Drug-Free America, which he hopes will become an umbrella organization to support programs sponsored by celebrities.

“My main focus is the war on drugs,” he said, noting that he has already enlisted the support of such celebrities as Liza Minnelli, Michael Jordan, Louis Gossett Jr. and the New Kids on the Block.

The 43-year-old entertainer won critical acclaim for his role as Chicken George in the 1977 TV miniseries “Roots” and received a Tony Award in 1973 as best actor in a musical for his leading role in the Broadway musical “Pippin.”

Orangewood’s $300-a-plate gala was attended by 750 guests. The ballroom for the black-tie event was decked with greenery, tables were draped in gold cloths and multicolored butterflies hung from the ceiling.

The Fieldstone Co. contributed $250,000. Among those contributing $100,000 were Mr. and Mrs. Tommy Tucker, Mr. and Mrs. John Hagestad, Kathryn G. Thompson and La Casa, the Orangewood Auxiliary.

In addition to the money raised through private donations, the Orange County Board of Supervisors has provided the land and earmarked $500,000 in county money toward the project, Steiner said.

Completed in 1985 after an $8-million fund-raising drive, Orangewood assists 3,000 children yearly.

The facilities include hacienda-style cottages, a K-12 school, a large gymnasium, a central dining hall and swimming and playground facilities.