YWCA Shelter Has Room to Celebrate
The South Orange County YWCA threw a birthday party complete with lollipops, birthday cake and balloons to a deserving 5-year-old: the YWCA’s Hotel for Homeless Women.
About 200 guests filled the YWCA auditorium in Santa Ana on Thursday for the hotel’s Fabulous Fifth Celebration. The party included a silent auction and raised about $15,000 for the facility, built to provide temporary shelter for homeless women without children.
Hotel and Haven
More than a birthday party, the gala was held “to thank again those who helped construct the hotel and all those who have supported it since,” said Mary Douglas, executive director of the YWCA.
The event’s co-chairpersons, Orange County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley and his wife, Emma Jane, helped develop the 19-room, double-occupancy shelter, which opened in March, 1987. Guests were given tours of the hotel that included a visit to one of the rooms neatly furnished with twin beds.
“It’s simple, but it’s what they need,” said Marianne Rodriguez, a YWCA volunteer who led the tours.
The hotel has served more than 2,000 women since its opening. “Some have been on the street several months. To come here and have a nice, clean, pretty room is like heaven for these women,” said Marjorie Fluor Moore, a member of the honorary committee.
Hotel Style
The YWCA gym looked as beautiful as a hotel ballroom, with hundreds of Easter-egg-hued balloons floating on the ceiling, ficus trees twinkling with white lights and metallic confetti sparkling on the tablecloths and wood floor.
While the decor matched that of a child’s party, dinner was a decidedly adult affair. No hot dogs here--the Y served a gourmet menu starting with a walnut and mandarin orange salad followed by Chicken Maxwell (rolled chicken breasts stuffed with feta and cream cheeses), grilled vegetables and rice pilaf. After the meal, guests were invited to light the candles on their cake, sing “Happy Birthday” and then slice into dessert.
Back on Their Feet
Guests paid $55 each to attend. Proceeds support the hotel, which provides counseling and job training as well as clothing, meals and shelter to about 38 residents. The average stay at the shelter is six to eight weeks.
When the women leave, about 98% have jobs and places to stay. “It’s a real struggle to raise money for homeless women,” Douglas said. “The joy is to see women get their lives back together.”
Among the party-goers were: Jean Aldrich, past YWCA president; JoEtta Brown, Jim Cooper, Rock Daze, Kay Byrum-Ellerman, Bill and Harriet Harris, Florence and Jim Lukens, Thurman and Marjorie Moore, Peter and Mary Muth, Patricia McGuigan, Richard and Ruby Parsons, J. (Walkie) Ray, Lee Reinke-Bright, Jackie Ross, Arlene Sontag, Gwenda Watson and Sandi Weber.
