$500,000 Raised for Young Burn Victims

Wallis Annenberg was speaking of children who have been burned: “We must do whatever we can to ensure their future--we are their hope.”

Philanthropist and vice president of the Annenberg Foundation, she received the first Giving New Hope Award from the Board and the Council of the Children’s Burn Foundation at a Beverly Hilton gala attended by more than 600, netting $500,000.

“The statistics are alarming,” Annenberg said. “More than 27,000 children are hospitalized each year from burns, and more than half of them are children under 4--the majority come from abuse and neglect.”

Benefit co-chairwomen Jan Billings and Diana Bollero praised chairwoman Carol Mancino and her husband, Doug, foundation chairman. Dr. A. Richard Grossman, medical director of the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital, paid tribute to the late actor McLean Stevenson, a burn survivor and a foundation founder.

A highlight of the evening was the auction of five dollhouses, including one seen in the window at Tiffany & Co. at Christmastime and a magnificent French cha^teau designed by Edward Turrentine. Turrentine’s crew worked for three weeks--the electrician spent 27 hours on the chandeliers and sconces--to decorate the miniature rooms. Book patterns were duplicated, then papered on walls. Lois Weinstock purchased the cha^teau for $5,500 as a gift for her daughter, 29-year-old Elisabeth Weinstock. “She never had a dollhouse,” said Lois.

Attending the event were Ginny and David Sydorick, who were soon to be off to Morocco to compete in the Rally of Moroc with his 1951 French blue Ferrari.

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Campaign: “Frasier” star David Hyde Pierce will be on hand Monday when Hillsides Home for Children formally announces its $7.6-million capital development campaign at a cocktail party at El Portal Restaurant in Pasadena.

Donald P. Clark, campaign chairman and managing partner of the law firm Clark &Trevithick;, says money will be used for two new residential cottages, a new child abuse resource center and a $2-million endowment.

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Gifted: The Mirman School for highly gifted students celebrated its 35th anniversary at the Beverly Hilton International Ballroom with tributes to Norman and Beverly Mirman, who founded the school in their home. The school in Bel-Air offers accelerated instruction to 350 students, ages 5 through 14. The Mirmans are leaving the day-to-day administration of the school and will assume a new role as advocates for gifted children on state and national levels.

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Two New Groups: The Children’s Bureau of Southern California is announcing the arrival of its Angelic Auxiliary. Jody Adair is founding chairwoman. Her grandfather-in-law, J. Howard Edgerton, a savings and loan executive, founded the Children’s Bureau Foundation 10 years ago. The bureau has aided abused children for 90 years.

And the YMCA of Pasadena (founded in 1886) has launched a new Council of 2001 to be composed of key business and civic leaders. At a reception at Caltech’s Athenaeum, YMCA board president James Orendorff revealed that San Marino resident Charles C. Reed will be inaugural chairman. Members will be expected to give $1,000 annually.

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Kudos: Victoria A. Fromkincq of UCLA’s department of linguistics will be honored Tuesday night for her election to the National Academy of Sciences. Provost Brian P. Copenhaver of the UCLA College of Letters and Science, and Pauline Yu, dean of the Division of Humanities, have extended invitations for cocktails and dinner at the UCLA Tennis Center Clubhouse.

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Las Candelas: What made the Las Candelas fashion luncheon different was that most of the husbands of the 40 members had a ringside seat to cheer on the David Hayes fashion show in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton. “All of Glendale is here,” said Robbie Carlton, looking over the crowd of 700. President Kay Withers welcomed guests. Benefit chairwoman Merle Hollywood accepted accolades.

For years, the women have trekked to Camarillo State Hospital to help at the Children’s Treatment Center. They are taking on new projects, including Hillsides Home for Children and a YWCA shelter for battered women.

Elsewhere on the Social Circuit:

Porcelain designer Lladro opens a 25,000-square-foot gallery on Rodeo Drive on March 26 with a benefit to honor the Motion Picture & Television Fund and the Samuel Goldwyn Children’s Center. The Lladro brothers--Jose, Juan and Vicente--have chartered a Boeing 747 to bring a cadre of friends and family from Valencia, Spain. Attending will be Spain’s former president, the duke of Suarez and his wife, Ampara Illana, and Spain’s minister of economy, Don Jose Luis Olivas, and his wife, Mercedes.

* Funds raised at the Glendale Adventist Medical Center Foundation benefit next Sunday at the Red Lion Hotel in Glendale will be matched through a $1-million challenge grant from the Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and Adventist Health. Monies will help fund equipment for the maternity/outpatient surgery center scheduled to open in 1998.

* The Fashion Circle of the Costume Council, L.A. County Museum of Art, had brunch at Saks Fifth Avenue to view the Donna Karan spring collection . . . Ludi Driscoll and Kathy Dooling chaired the “Cha! Cha! Cha!” Mayfield Senior School benefit.

* Plaudits: To the Pasadena Guild of Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, which raised $350,000 this year under the leadership of President Dolly Eddington . . . To the Lebanese Ladies Cultural Society, hosting a gala Saturday at the Long Beach Hilton to add to the $500,000 it has raised over 11 years for needy children in Lebanon. Denise Kafrouni is chairwoman; honorary chairs are Ghada Irani, Violet Jacobs and Laurice Soufan . . . To the Big Brothers of Greater Los Angeles for raising $110,000 at its celebrity auction at the Regent Beverly Wilshire . . . To the Thelma Pearl Howard Foundation, created by the Walt Disney family’s longtime nanny, for a pledge of $10,000 to the Sycamores arts therapy program for abused children.