Rain Fails to Bust Up Buffalo Benefit for Y

The very last in a distinguished line of bison simmered quietly under several feet of packed earth Saturday afternoon, while raindrops from an unseasonal backcountry shower evaporated in puffs of steam as they splattered against the hot ground.

You might call the Mission Valley YMCA the house that buffalo built. In 1980, the Daley family--proprietors of East County’s Texas-sized Daley Ranch and the Daley Corp.--hosted the first annual “Buffalo Barbecue” for the Y, which opened one year later with a mortgage of $600,000. The first several barbecues retired that mortgage. Including the $150,000 earned Saturday by the 11th installment in the series, more than $1.3 million have been raised by what can only be described as a singular event.

The county now numbers several Western-type hoedowns on the annual fund-raising calendar, but the buffalo barbecue is one of the few hosted by genuine cattle folk rather than city slickers posing in boots and hats. The centerpiece, as might be supposed, is the remains of a buffalo, wrapped in burlap sacks and buried in an ember-heated pit, along with pots of cowboy beans, to slowly braise to bison-ish perfection.

The beast at Saturday’s bash was the very last in the Daley herd, but family matriarch Toni Daley, who invented the event with husband Don Daley Sr., said not to worry: “We’ll get one anyhow next year, from Wyoming or Colorado.”

Although Mission Valley Y executive director Dick Webster characterized the barbecue as “one of the top 10 fund-raisers in the county, but not that well-known,” it certainly is one of the most complete, a fact that accounted for the attendance of more than 600. Diversions include a costumed mariachi band; a country-Western band; a sky show; a false-fronted Western town erected near the western end of the home’s pond-sized pool, complete with a casino disguised as a Dodge City saloon, and assorted games of skill a little different from those associated with a typical fund-raiser, including the ever-popular buffalo-chip toss.

The guests’ boot heels started digging into the turf at 2 p.m., or shortly before a short-lived but insistent rain sent most of them running for cover under the elegant, white-and-yellow pavilions that ringed the party area. The rain delayed several activities, including a sky-diving routine later performed by parachutists who jumped from a helicopter and a pair of antique airplanes.

The brief storm brought perennial party co-chair Jack Phelps--under an agreement with the Daleys, he has chaired or co-chaired all of the barbecues--to the microphone, which he used to urge guests not to let the shower dampen their day. “It’s just a little country-Western rain,” he assured them.

The country tone of the party played out coyly through the day, as sudden mock-gunfights brought guests quickly to attention and the sound system delivered such announcements as “The chicken poop-off will begin in 20 minutes.” The latter amusement, a game of chance rather than skill, required two feathered friends in a coop and a board marked off in small, numbered squares. Players chose the square they hoped would be the first to be “marked” by one of the fowl. Prizes were awarded.

According to Toni Daley, the key to the day’s success is the labor performed by her family--which includes sons and daughters-in-law Don Jr. and Taunya and John and Debbie--which prepares the entire menu.

“We try to do everything so that it doesn’t take any of the money away from Y,” she said. “Ninety-five cents of every dollar of proceeds goes to the Y.” Besides the buffalo and beans, the menu included such casual fare as corn on the cob and salad, as well as the tamales prepared over a period of weeks by Daley and her in-laws. As always--and most amazingly--Daley knew the exact number of tamales prepared; the count for 1991 was 1,175, or almost two per guest.

Besides ticket sales and underwriting, a portion of the proceeds were earned from a live auction of extravagant items, of which the grandest was a vacation for two to Australia and Fiji.

Mission Valley YMCA board chair Bruce Blakley said the Y would not have existed without the barbecues, and will shortly expand thanks to them. This Saturday morning, ground will be broken on a 23,000-square-foot addition that will include the new Daley Gymnasium. “We’ll be able to provide many new services to our kids,” Blakley said.

At this barbecue, board members also labor on the sorts of chores usually relegated to catering crews, including setting up the dinner tables and taking down the Western street scene.

Among those on duty Saturday were John Long, Rich Brady, Ron Zagami, Mag White, Ludi Graf, Ted Millan, Bob Cheverton and Bill Krommenhoek. The guest list included Linda and Gary Copson, Carla and Bill McGrath, Mary Jane and Jim Wiesler, Susan and Bill Evans, Rita and Joel Cloud, Jill and Michael Erne, Jessie and Paul Barkley and Dolly and Glen Copeland.

SAN DIEGO--On Saturday evening, lost pounds translated into earned dollars as diet monarchs Sid and Jenny Craig received the fifth Humanitarian Award to be granted by San Diego Hospice.

The gala dinner-dance, the fifth to be given by the hospice and the first since the opening of the new care facility for the terminally ill on Vauclain Point, drew some 700 guests to the Champagne Ballroom at the Sheraton Harbor Island hotel.

Given the lean economic times, party sponsors said that they had hoped for net proceeds of $200,000, but, given the undeniably power-house committee that organized the event, the proceeds soared to an unprecedented $320,000. In 1991, the only gala to top that figure thus far has been the Jewel Ball.

The Craigs chaired the event in 1990, when Mrs. Morton Phillips, better known as advice columnist Abigail Van Buren, received the Humanitarian Award. “We didn’t have to do any work this year, we just had to show up,” said Jenny Craig of Saturday’s gala, adding, “But we’re every bit as concerned with the success of the evening, and it certainly is a success. This is a great cause, and it’s nice to see so many people sensitive to it. We all like to think we will never need hospice, but a number of us in this room will need it one day.”

As committees go, this one went over the top. Hospice angel Joan Kroc, who arrived quietly and kept a typically low profile until the moment arrived for the presentation of the award, acted as general chair, backed up by co-chairs Larry and Junko Cushman, Dr. Charles and Sue Edwards, Murray and Elaine Galinson, and Gordon and Karon Luce. The man whose picture you see on the envelope, Ed McMahon, served as dinner chair and master of ceremonies.

In the unbending style of testimonial dinners, the meal was prefaced by lengthy introductions, and followed by a videotaped tribute to the Craigs and numerous speeches, but the evening also came off with considerable style. The ballroom glowed with candles and very spring-like floral arrangements, and bandleader Bill Green brought along a full-sized orchestra to swing through breaks in the program. The menu included a strudel of smoked chicken, beef filet with mustard sauce and a specially designed dessert called the “Hospice torte.”

C. Everett Koop, former U.S. surgeon general and 1989 recipient of the Humanitarian Award, joined a guest roster that included actor Dick Van Patten and his wife, Patty; the Craig’s daughter, Michelle, and her husband, Duayne Weinger; designer Steve Chase, who decorated Kroc’s immense Fairbanks Ranch mansion; Hospice CEO Holly Lorentson; David Rubel; Joan and Irwin Jacobs; Judi and Max Shuster; Berneice and Dempsey Copeland; Marjorie and Morton Shaevitz, and Marge and Paul Palmer.