Fashion Statement Is Helping Children

The Voices for Children Auxiliary went fishing for new members and used Bob Mackie as bait.

The designer to the stars, the famous and a few San Diegans sent down his complete and often outrageous spring couture collection for the recent “Follow the Sun” fashion luncheon in the Marina Ballroom at the San Diego Marriott. Since a hook baited with a Mackie gown emits the same, seductive siren song to a fashion fancier as does a plate loaded with foie gras to a ravenous gourmet, the event sold out at a solid 600.

Ticket sales were expected to result in net earnings of $40,000 for Voices for Children, an organization that recruits and trains volunteers to act as advocates for abandoned, neglected and abused children who are wards of the courts. However, “Follow the Sun” organizers said that an equally important purpose of the day was attracting new members to the auxiliary, with the broadest possible range of community involvement as the goal. The fact that the day was spectacularly packaged proved that, even in fund-raising, marketing works.

A committee that has worked together on myriad major events and is known for its packaging talents designed the luncheon. This particular group always invents some giddy bit of nonsense to create a mood; at “Follow the Sun,” it took the form of the funky headgear that crowned raffle ticket sellers, hat boxes crowned with colored cellophane and shredded Mylar that looked like Chanel chapeaux as interpreted by Salvador Dali. The glitzed-out hat box theme repeated in the centerpieces, which included white Teddy bears in their decoration and were delivered to Hillcrest Receiving Home after the show.

Chairwoman Karen Cohn said that the auxiliary board decided that a fashion show might be an effective form of advertising. “This is a vital organization, but it’s hard to get the word out. So we decided on a show that would be flashy and fun, and Mackie always is fun.”

Voices for Children executive director Karyl O’Brien said that the attendance more than fulfilled expectations. “There are a lot of new faces here, people who are just learning about us,” she said. “We started just three and one-half years ago with a handful of people, and now there are more than 500 auxiliary members.” O’Brien added that the growth in membership has provided the funding to expand the volunteer corps fourfold, or to about 400, and to increase the number of children served annually to more than 2,000. “The auxiliary has generated the dollars that have enabled us to grow.”

“What we’re doing today is more important than might be obvious,” said auxiliary President Judy McDonald. “We insert private dollars into the public system; ours is a private effort to assist a vastly overburdened public system. There are so many children who have been abused and neglected, and there are now 8,000 of them in foster care. A need like this makes a fashion show wonderful .”

Another thing that made this particular show wonderful, in the opinion of many participants, was the vastly better-than-usual lunch of seafood vol-au-vents and coffee ice cream truffles coated in white chocolate.

But it was the Mackie collection, of course, that really made the day, and the designer presented a ramp extravaganza that was as much a show as a showing.

It opened with the sort of outfit that Cher might be tempted to wear; the model slouched elegantly down the runway wearing a yard-wide headdress of orchids, the skimpiest of bikinis, a ruffled tail that flared out behind her and not much else. A modified striptease (more tease that strip, and conducted in three-quarters darkness) opened another segment, and other daring outfits followed periodically between the modelings of short beaded numbers, full, flowing gowns and relatively conservative--for Mackie--suits.

The committee included Linda Alessio, Pam Allison, Mac Canty, Junko Cushman, Ann Martinet, Betty Mabee, Sheri Kelts, Joanne Fine, Jadziu Goulet, Linda Owen, Jane Murphy, Audrey Geisel, Genevieve Kandel, Mag White, Judith Harris, Bea Epsten, Julie Sarno, Elene Solomon, Barbara Harper, Ann Jones, Marsha Shahon, Susan Farrell, Mag White and Kathi Cypres.

LA JOLLA--It never matters which language the committee that perennially puts together the “Celebrities Cook for the UCSD Cancer Center Gala” chooses to express the group motto, because the phrase always translates as “Let’s eat!”

The committee is saying it in Italian this year with “Mangiamo! A Night in Tuscany,” to be given on May 18 in the Champagne Ballroom of the Sheraton Harbor Island. The 10th in the series of festive foodie fantasies founded for the cancer center by four-time chairwoman Anne Otterson, “Mangiamo!” will focus on the notably earthy fare of Tuscany. As a bonus, the highly respected Consorzio del Gallo Nero of Florence (the Consortium of the Black Rooster, an association of Chianti winemakers whose right to use the rooster emblem lends immense prestige to their products) has donated 24 cases of classified Chianti growths to be poured at the black-tie event.

As always, a key feature will be the miniature kitchens staffed during the cocktail reception by “celebrity cooks,” a definition that in some years has specified amateurs, and, in other years, professionals. Just one amateur, San Diegan Giovanni Caprioglio, will prepare hors d’oeuvres at “Mangiamo;” the booths otherwise will be staffed by such highly regarded chefs as Nancy Silverton and Mark Peel of the currently hot Campanile in Los Angeles; Ruggiero Gadaldi of Etrusca and Carlo Middione of Vivande, both in San Francisco; Barbara Beltaire of La Jolla’s Piatti, Martin Woesle of Mille Fleurs in Rancho Santa Fe and Christian Rassinoux of the Ritz Carlton in Laguna Niguel.

The event honors former “Celebrities Cook” chairmen, each of whom will be sponsoring one or more of the chefs. In addition to Otterson, this group includes Jerrie Strom, Marilynn Boesky, Georgiana Haynor, Pamela Wischkaemper, Cheryl Rohde, William Otterson and 1991 chairwoman Carrie O’Brien. The “Mangiamo!” committee includes Diana Lombrozo, Lyn Heller, Isabelle Wasserman, Edie Greenberg, Shirley Gillespie, Barbara McColl, Gina Taper, Joan Kline, Pat JaCoby, Sandy Schafer, Jeanne Jones, Bridget Breitenberg, Melissa Elliott, Dee Biller, Virginia Thomas and Joan Tukey.

Tickets to the event are available through the UCSD Cancer Center office and are priced at $200, $350 and $500 per person; guests who attend in the two higher categories will be invited to a 6 p.m. private preview hour with the celebrity chefs and past chairmen.