Fund-Raising Menu Offers Wide Choice

Undaunted by football bowl games and the cheerless visage of recession, the folks who help write the county’s yearly menu of fund-raisers spent the weekend following New Year’s Day honing plans for a spate of benefits for arts, educational and health organizations. Anyone in the mood to party should be able to order something tasty from the social bill of fare scheduled for the next month.

The season kicks off Friday with the annual “Symphony of Fashion” luncheon sponsored by the San Diego Symphony League. Creations by hot new couturier Eva Chun--who says her clothes are inspired by a blend of “sex and sophistication”--will be featured in the showing of designer clothes presented by Saks Fifth Avenue in La Jolla. The main attraction, as in the past, will be the performance by the full San Diego Symphony Orchestra under the direction of guest conductor Murray Sidlin. The luncheon, to be given in Marriott Hall at the San Diego Marriott, will commence with an 11 a.m. social hour. Tickets are $45 for regular admission and $100 for patrons, who will stay after the show for a Champagne reception with Sidlin. For further information, call the San Diego Symphony.

The 18th annual “Spirit of San Diego” luncheon and fashion show, titled “Chariots of Peace,” will be given by the All Hallows Women’s Guild on Jan. 16 in the Champagne Ballroom of the Sheraton Harbor Island. This recognition of volunteers from many organizations around San Diego County will honor quite a number of those who toil in the vineyards of fund raising, and will feature a showing of fashions from American and European designers presented by haute couture expert Leonard Simpson. Tickets to the event, which will begin with an 11 a.m. reception, are $45 for regular seating and $100 for guests attending at the patrons level. For further information, call Wanda Horne at 558-9505.

Philanthropist Muriel Gluck, underwriter of the production of “Der Rosenkavalier” that will open the 1992 season of the San Diego Opera, will be honored at “A Magical Evening in Vienna,” the annual gala, slumber party and fund-raiser whose various components will bracket the Jan. 18 opening-night performance of the Richard Strauss comic opera.

In an expansion upon past themes, the post-performance dinner and gala will be given in the ballroom of the U.S Grant hotel; food maven Edie Greenberg will be in charge of the elaborate menu, and, since the opera is by Strauss, waltzes will be featured. In continuation of the tradition established several years ago, the event will open with a 3 p.m. check-in for guests at the nearby Westgate Hotel, followed by a 5:30 p.m. Champagne reception in the Westgate lobby.

Following the performance and gala, guests will return to the Westgate for the evening, and attend a morning brunch in the hotel’s Fontainebleau Room.

The very black-tie event, which will be chaired by Iris Strauss, is available as a package only and does not include tickets to the performance; these must be purchased separately. Gala tickets are available at $475 for individuals and $850 for couples. For further information, call the San Diego Opera.

The Wings Transitional Housing Project, the San Diego Seafarer’s Mission, the Interfaith Shelter Network and other allied charities will benefit from the seventh annual Christian Unity Awards Dinner, to be given by the San Diego County Ecumenical Conference on Jan. 21, in the ballroom of the San Diego Hilton.

Judge Rudi M. Brewster will serve as honorary chairman of the benefit, which, according to the invitation, will recognize the “dedication to social justice and service to the San Diego community” of three couples: William and Susan Hoehn, Helen and the Rev. Robert M. Wolterstorff and Rita and Dr. George Zorn Sr. Entertainment will include performances by the San Diego High School Boys Quartet and by local singers Sheldon Brockett, Dick Meads, Hie Thompson and Homer Peabody.

Tickets to the event, which specifies business attire and will commence at 6:30 p.m., are $100, $150 and $250. For further information, call benefit coordinator Maggie Mazur at 698-1156.

The San Diego Foundation for the Performing Arts and other local performing arts organizations supported by the Single Professionals’ Society will benefit from the fourth annual “Break Your New Year’s Resolution Party,” a black-tie-optional mixer to be given Jan. 24 from 8 p.m. until 1 a.m. in the Rio Vista Ballroom of the Mission Valley Marriott.

The Siers Brothers Band will perform at the fund-raiser, the invitation to which urges prospective guests to reconsider such resolutions as those to eat less chocolate and to exercise more often. Extras include a silent auction and door prizes. Advance tickets are $25; admission at the is $30. For more information, call the SPS office at 695-8713.

The unquestioned grande dame of San Diego social outings, the Charity Ball, which was founded near the turn of the century and remains the Establishment party in this city, will be given Feb. 1 at its traditional location, the Grand Ballroom of the Hotel del Coronado.

The benefit for Children’s Hospital and Health Center has chosen the carefree theme “Let’s Go Fly a Kite!” and, in a definite departure from tradition, will offer dancing to Red and the Red Hots. The black-tie event will begin at 8:30 p.m., but those guests who choose to attend the optional pre-ball dinner in the Crown Room will be expected to arrive at 6:30.

Boxes to the event--the only in the county to feature boxes--are available strictly by pre-arrangement, and in many cases by inheritance. Loge seats in the ballroom are available at $125, and seating in the adjacent Crystal Room at $75. The formal dinner in the Crown Room is $65. For more information, call Children’s Hospital.