BUENA PARK : Olympic Skaters to Attend Fund-Raiser

Olympic gold medal-winning figure skaters Viktor Petrenko and Oksana Baiul will detour from a 64-city American tour to greet admirers at the Los Coyotes Country Club at 5 p.m. July 2.

Tickets, $45 for adults and $20 for children younger than 12, are on sale through today. Proceeds will go to upgrade the figure-skating arena in Odessa, Ukraine, organizer Maria Billey said.

For tickets, call Billey at (714) 522-8062.

Buena Park is one of the few cities where Petrenko and Baiul, the skater who nudged Nancy Kerrigan from the gold-medal pedestal at the 1994 Winter Olympics, have agreed to stop for fund-raisers, Billey said.

They are performing at The Pond of Anaheim on July 1 and at the Forum in Inglewood on July 3.

Billey, a longtime Buena Park resident, helped form the Friends of Ukraine National Olympic Committee in March to organize the event. They hope to raise $10,000 for the Odessa arena from ticket sales. The reception can accommodate up to about 400 people, she said.

Children who attend the event will have their own table, said Billey, who lived in Ukraine until she was 15 years old. “I think it is very important for children to meet them,” she said. “For the rest of their lives, they will remember this.”