Silent Auction Aids Laguna Women’s Shelter

Supporters of Human Options, a shelter for battered women in Laguna Beach, met for cocktails and silent auction bidding Tuesday night in the softly lit, seasonally sparkily confines of the Center Club.

The benefit drew about 200 guests at $30 each to the private club across from the Performing Arts Center. Party organizers hoped to net $20,000 to augment the shelter’s nearly half-million-dollar annual budget.

“This is the time of year--and this year especially--when it’s real important to keep the money coming in,” said Vivian Clecak, executive director of Human Options. “There’s a lot of anxiety about the economy, but nonprofit (organizations) still have the same number of problems.”

Or, in the case of women’s shelters, potentially more problems, Clecak added. “Unemployment is one of the things that can trigger an increase in domestic violence. Around Christmas we may be a little empty because women try to hold the family together for the children. But in January we’ll probably have a lot more women calling us than we can handle.”

Founded in 1981, Human Options provides shelter for 18 women and children, as well as counseling, hot-line crisis intervention and other services for victims of domestic violence.

“When I first sat in on meetings at the shelter, I would just sit there and cry,” said Naomi Roufs, a board member and chairwoman of the event.

Roufs, who works for a Newport Beach developer, got involved with the agency a couple years ago when she moved to Orange County from L.A. “This is just something I wanted to do as a personal venture--it doesn’t have anything to do with business or networking or any of that.”

Jan Ballester, a banker from Anaheim Hills who’s worked with the shelter for five years, only recently understood why she chose Human Options instead of other philanthropies.

“I started thinking about why I am so interested in this group,” said Ballester, a board member, “and it occurred to me that even though I wasn’t really conscious of it, I had a very personal reason. I had an aunt who died when I was 4 or 5 years old. I remember hearing about her as someone who’d had a tragedy--her husband threw acid on her face. I didn’t know exactly what it meant, but I knew it was something bad from the way my parents talked about it.

“I’ve been thinking about that recently,” Ballester said. “It’s like I just wasn’t ready to understand it until now.”

The benefit, which was completely underwritten by donations, was co-hosted by the Professional Women’s and Professional Men’s support groups for Human Options. Among the 140 donated silent auction items were several Frederick Remington sculptures, various restaurant meals and holidays gifts, and a basketball autographed by Chicago Bulls’ star Michael Jordan.