Motion Picture Academy Given $100,000

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, in early October, received a $100,000 contribution from the Mary Pickford Foundation for the academy’s new Center for Motion Picture Study. The center, to be housed in the restored and renovated Beverly Hills Waterworks building, will bring together the collections of the academy’s Margaret Herrick Library and its Film Archive under one roof for the first time.

* St. Joseph Center is the recipient of $15,000, the net proceeds raised at a wine and champagne buffet Oct. 30. Held at the Bistro Garden, the fourth annual event was hosted by Cecelia and Clifford Waeschle and Rick Merrill. Proceeds will support the center’s programs for low-income and homeless people on the Los Angeles Westside.

* National Kidney Foundation of Southern California’s Great Chefs of Orange County fund-raiser held Oct. 28 raised more than $35,000 for foundation programs that include a special camp for children, treatment and ongoing research. Westin South Coast Plaza hosted the food and wine-tasting event, with more than 300 attendees enjoying food from 22 area restaurants.

* Special Olympics California president Rafer Johnson received a $10,000 check Sept. 23, from John Lehodey, executive vice president of Hotel Sofitel, proceeds from the fifth annual Hotel Sofitel amateur French cooking contest.

* Neil Bogart Memorial Laboratory, the West Coast division of the T. J. Martell Foundation, has netted more than $37,000 to be used for cancer, AIDS and leukemia research for children. The funds were raised at the eighth annual Academy of Country Music Golf Tournament held Oct. 15 at the De Bell Golf Course in Burbank. More than 400 guests attended the post-tournament party at Castaways Restaurant.

* San Fernando Valley Child Guidance Clinic received a $16,000 grant in October from the Weingart Foundation. The grant will be used at the Northpoint School and Day Treatment Program for emotionally disturbed children to replace desks and chairs and for therapeutic games, toys and other equipment.

* City Hearts, a nonprofit organization dedicated to introducing the arts to inner-city and Skid Row children, raised $24,000 at a benefit reception for artist John O’Brien at the Eleventh Street Gallery in Santa Monica on Oct. 25. Jane Seymour hosted. Money from the sale of O’Brien’s works was donated to City Hearts.

* Jewish Homes for the Aging’s Associates luncheon at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel, held Oct. 2, was attended by 400 members and guests and netted $50,000 for JHA. Fern Jubas is president and Sheila Dick was luncheon chair.

* Help The Homeless Help Themselves Inc. received a $20,000 grant from the Kenneth Norris Foundation Aug. 6. The grant will provide funds for families about to be evicted because of illness or temporary job loss, or those in need of first and last month’s rent to get housing.