GARDEN GROVE : Benefit for Needy Children Planned

The Beacons, the professional women’s auxiliary of the Assistance League of Garden Grove, is putting on a dinner Friday to benefit needy children.

The affair will be a murder mystery dinner party, and guests will try to figure out who the killer is.

The $60-per-person dinner will be the Beacons’ major fund-raising event of the year for the growing numbers of children in the city who require assistance.

In the 1992-93 school year, the Assistance League provided free clothing and dental care to more than 1,000 youngsters.

Friday’s dinner will be at the Village Crean, the Santa Ana Heights mansion of John and Donna Crean.

Professional actors of Dial “M” Murder Mysteries of Los Angeles will act out the mystery while guests are dining.

At the conclusion of the show, the cast will sum up motives and suspects in the crime in a way that’s “sure to leave everyone dying with laughter,” said Rosemary Davis, a spokeswoman for the Beacons who also is principal at Excelsior Elementary School in Garden Grove.

Besides raising money for shoes, clothing and book bags, the Beacons hope to raise enough money to establish a scholarship program for students at Lake Continuation High School.

The group is seeking to raise about $15,000 at the dinner and a silent auction of donated items that is also scheduled that evening, Davis said. The program starts at 6 p.m.