Getting Together for The Gathering Place

Sheila DeGruy recalled her first meeting with Pauletta Washington before Christmas in South-Central Los Angeles at The Gathering Place, a drop-in center for mothers and children affected by AIDS: “When she opened up the trunk of her car and I saw how many toys she had brought, I started to cry.”

DeGruy, the center’s director, experienced a similar emotion Saturday night as she stood in the entrance of a mirrored tent erected in the back garden of Dionne Warwick’s Beverly Hills home.

There, an elegant formal reception hosted by Pauletta and her husband, actor Denzel Washington, was raising close to $255,000.

“My heart is full,” DeGruy said of the benefit, which included a personal contribution of $50,000 from Denzel Washington and several large donations from others in the entertainment industry.

Among those was $25,000 from producer Zev Braun, who is a partner with Washington in a planned film about the Carthaginian general Hannibal.

Washington, who recently went to the center that his wife has championed to play with the children and sit in on a counseling session for the mothers, said: “I was just blown away by what I saw there. The need is so great.

“I felt, ‘This just can’t be; I must do something to help,’ ” Washington said.

Warwick, one of the first celebrities to raise money to fight AIDS, said that experience had shown her that “the only way we are going to win this is together, and this is help for those who have been underserved or not served at all.”

In a white lace pantsuit, Warwick joined a vivacious Pauletta Washington and the women of her committee, all dressed in red, for a poolside cocktail hour before guests filtered into the tent for supper and entertainment.

Food--pasta, ribs, Southern fried chicken and pies--was provided by restaurants like Il Giardino, Tony Roma’s, Aunt Kizzy’s Back Porch and the Southern Bakery.

Entertainer Mel Carter sang “Over the Rainbow” and Chaka Khan belted out “Alfie” in tribute to Warwick, who concluded the evening with “Windows of the World.”

A celebrity basketball game Sunday afternoon against Los Angeles firefighters at Loyola Marymount Gersten Pavilion was scheduled to conclude the two-event fund-raiser.