Donors at Fund-Raiser Get Their Just Desserts

Although his chin was smeared with chocolate and his tummy protruded against his T-shirt, 5-year-old Scott Valley showed no signs of slowing down.

The boy’s eyes darted back and forth over the chocolate candies displayed on a folding table that was just about at his eye level.

“He’s a chocolate marathoner,” said Scott’s mother, Sheri Valley, 27, who stood nearby. She estimated that her son had devoured more than 40 pieces of chocolate within the previous two hours. “He was just running and stuffing it in his mouth,” she said.

Scott and his mother, father and sister were among about 250 people who spent Sunday afternoon at Chocolate Sunday, the 25th-anniversary party and fund-raiser for the Camarillo Boys & Girls Club at the club’s gymnasium.

Tables laden with cocoa-flavored delights ranging from chocolate burritos to chocolate ice cream filled the room, free and beckoning to all who had paid the admission price--$15 for adults, $5 for big kids and free for little ones. The event raised about $3,000.

The come-on was all-you-can-eat, and some chocolate lovers took the slogan literally.

Arianne Waer, 13, was one of seven students who came to Chocolate Sunday from Oak Grove School in Ojai, a boarding school that serves only vegetarian fare. Even the desserts at Oak Grove are healthy, Arianne said.

“It’s pretty disgusting,” she said. “Everything has to do with honey and there’s no sugar there. And there’s carob--aaagh!”

Fortunately, Arianne said, she does not eat all her meals at school because she lives at home in Ojai. Fellow student Robyn Nisbet boards at Oak Grove but was more charitable about its leafy diet.

“It feels good to eat healthy,” Robyn said. But “it’s kind of overwhelming,” she said, to be surrounded by such gooey temptation.

“I wish chocolate was good for you,” Robyn said longingly.

A Camarillo dentist whose clinic helped sponsor Sunday’s extravaganza said chocolate may be healthier than we think. At the dental group’s table, new red and green toothbrushes were offered along with fat-free chocolate muffins and other chocolate delicacies.

Dentist Mark Lisagor said he had no qualms about giving away the candies because chocolate is not as damaging to dental health as foods such as potato chips and raisins, which get stuck between the teeth.

“We’re saying if you’re concerned about your teeth, worry about starches probably more than chocolate, “ Lisagor said.

Karen Bergh, 58, said she was surprised to hear that chocolate may not be as bad as she had thought.

“How do you know who to believe?” she said. “I don’t feel I’m any authority. I’m a chocoholic.”