Solid Support After ‘Shattered Trust’

Shari Karney, a lawyer and child rights activist who was abused as a child, and actress Melissa Gilbert, who portrayed Karney in a TV movie, were honored at a fashion show/fund-raiser for the Orange County Chapter of Childhelp USA.

Karney and Gilbert received Childhelp’s Children’s Friend award before 600 guests at the “For the Love of a Child” benefit at the Hyatt Regency Irvine last week. The $60-per-person luncheon, which included a fashion show staged by Saks Fifth Avenue, was expected to net $80,000 for Childhelp, an organization that combats child abuse.

A Painful Past

A decade ago, Karney was a 29-year-old attorney defending an incest victim when a real-life courtroom drama triggered memories of her painful past.

“I was cross-examining a man accused of sexually abusing his 3-year-old daughter, and I (tried to) strangle him,” Karney said. “Nine months later I uncovered memories of my own sexual abuse.”

A victim of incest by both her father and brother, Karney began sharing her story and worked to change California legislation to extend the statute of limitations in child molestation cases. That led to numerous television and radio appearances, followed by the NBC Movie of the Week “Shattered Trust: The Shari Karney Story,” starring Gilbert as Karney.

“When someone plays you, it’s like they have a piece of your soul,” Karney said.

Beyond ‘Little House’

Karney and Gilbert hugged and chatted like old friends when the actress arrived at the hotel with fiance Bruce Boxleitner.

Gilbert, an actress and model since age 2 who later portrayed Laura in the “Little House on the Prairie” television series, said playing Karney was her toughest role.

“It was a very gut-wrenching experience,” Gilbert said. “I felt like I had a tremendous responsibility. I generally play people who existed in the past (or in fiction). She was actually there on the set the whole time . . . . She was very open, very honest. It was wonderful to have her there.”

After the movie aired in September 1993, Childhelp’s toll-free hot line ((800) 4-A-Child) was inundated with calls from child abuse victims, according to Anna Petruzzelli, president of Childhelp’s Western regional board.

“That’s why we were really inspired by Melissa,” Petruzzelli said.

Food and Fashion

Sara O’Meara and Yvonne Fedderson were two actresses performing for troops in Tokyo 35 years ago when they founded Childhelp (originally International Orphans Inc.) to help Japanese American orphans--the children of U.S. servicemen.

“It was an unpopular cause, but we were only thinking of the children,” Fedderson said.

The group changed its focus to the prevention, treatment and research of child abuse in 1974. In addition to the hot line, Childhelp runs foster homes and two Childhelp Villages to house child abuse victims. The village in Beaumont serves 80 children from Southern California, and another opened recently in Culpeper, Va.

In honor of Childhelp’s overseas origins, event co-chairwomen Tani Stevens and Jana Shuler turned the hotel ballroom into an Asian garden. A rickshaw stood in the hotel lobby, and kimonos adorned the walls. Inside the ballroom, tables were decorated with simple Asian-style floral arrangements while the stage had panels painted with Chinese letters.

After a lunch of Chinese fare, the fashion show began with a dancing Chinese dragon that did everything but breathe fire. Models paraded down the runway in fun sportswear from Nine O Two Six Five and lots of flowing pants and loose tunic tops from Isda Funari, a San Francisco-based designer.

Among the guests were honorary chairman Efrem Zimbalist Jr.; Barbara Ganahl, Orange County chapter president, and Orange County Supervisor Thomas Riley and his wife, Emma Jane, past chapter president. Other guests included Denise McNeil, Nancy Whitlock, Patty Edwards, Claire LaBerge, Mary Allyn Dexter, Sabrina Enright, Ruth Phillips, Rebecca McCarthy, Martha Fleener, Eileen Saul, Carol Packard, Tina Schafnitz, Gene Howard, Gary San Filippo, Betty Lou Lamoreaux, Jeanie Ming, William Steiner and Gemma Wolf.