R S V P / ORANGE COUNTY : A Knight to Remember for St. Joseph’s

A towering medieval castle, minstrels who played Renaissance music and a feast fit for a king made guests feel like royalty at the Magical Knight benefit for St. Joseph Hospital in Orange.

Guests gathered at the Newport Beach Marriott Thursday for the 18th Annual Seasonal Soiree staged by Todos, a support group for the St. Joseph Foundation. The $125-per-person black-tie gala netted more than $16,000 for the expansion and renovation of the St. Joseph Hospital Emergency Care Center.

Crowning Achievement

Party planners came up with the “Magical Knight” theme after Mike Conkey, event chairman, informed them that he just happened to own a castle.

“I talked to my committee and said, ‘Hey, I know where we can get a castle.’ I don’t think they realized how big it is,” he said.

The castle, a 10-foot-tall plywood tower flanked by a pair of 12-foot-tall turrets and decorated with mini-lights, barely fit inside the ballroom.

“It usually takes my family a week to set it up, but the committee had it up in four hours,” Conkey said.

Conkey and his family built the castle in 1983 to decorate the yard of their Villa Park home at Christmastime, but it’s been in storage since 1988 because Conkey now lives in a condo.

“It’s nice to see it again. They used to have a decorating contest in our neighborhood, and this was the backdrop for animated figures. We always used to win the contests.”

To add to the theme, gold crowns adorned the center of each table. Guests were served a royal feast of cream of acorn squash en croute, filet mignon, marinated swordfish and filet of beef with herbed demi glace, followed by a rich chocolate cake that would have satisfied Henry VIII.

While party-goers dined and made merry, they were entertained by Allegro Vivace, a musical trio that played Renaissance and baroque tunes on a harpsichord, recorder and sackbut, a medieval trombone.

Christmas at the ER

Todos, a philanthropic organization meaning “everyone” in Spanish, is open to anyone who wants to contribute the $125-a-year dues.

“They wanted Todos to be all-inclusive, in keeping with the philosophy of the hospital,” said Ira Toibin, Todos president.

Gala proceeds will help renovate St. Joseph’s ER, which will quadruple in size to 44 beds and is scheduled for completion in fall 1996.

“We’ve needed it. The record high was 220 patients in one day, and we have 14 beds,” said Kate Reeves, past director of St. Joseph’s emergency department.

Reeves and other past and present staff members traded stories about what it was like to work the Christmas shift in the ER. Peggy Macauley, who worked for 20 years at the center as clerical services coordinator, was once called in to work at 3 a.m. Christmas Day.

“I got a call saying, ‘Could you please come in?’ The place was packed,” she said. “Christmas Day is an awful day to work.”

Others attending the gala were Larry Ainsworth, president and CEO of St. Joseph Hospital, and his wife Laura; Ted and Julie Holt, executive director of the foundation; Charles and Milly Kovac; George and Jann Holmes; Karl and Mary Andrews; Artie Killen; Rosalind Ostermiller; Bob and Phyllis Fiorentino; Eleanor Graham; Margo Johnson; George Reeves; Lynn and Heidi Muth; James and Linda Sutherland; and Bob and Sylvia Sunshine.