Former Sen. George J. Mitchell was honored...

Former Sen. George J. Mitchell was honored with the Distinguished Leadership Award at the American Ireland Fund’s 14th annual gala Nov. 5 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Mitchell accepted the award for his work as former chairman of the peace talks in Northern Ireland, culminating in the signing of the peace agreement on April 10. The dinner was co-chaired by Patty and Roy Disney and Jane and Michael Eisner. Loretta Brennan Glucksman, national president of the American Ireland Fund, emceed the evening. Among the 500 guests attending were Jimmy and Anne Murphy, Frank and Catherine Price, Michael and Gretchen Wayne, Dana Delany, Fionnula Flanagan, Charles Bronson, Lynn Redgrave, John Hurt and Sarah Owens. About $500,000 was raised at the dinner, which will go to projects of peace, culture, charity and education in Ireland. The Los Angeles chapter of the American Ireland Fund presents the Distinguished Leadership Award to an American of Irish descent who has made an extraordinary and lasting contribution to the American Irish heritage and culture of Ireland. Past honorees include Liam Neeson, Gene Kelly, Maureen O’Hara, Donald O’Connor, Merv Griffin, Angela Lansbury, former President Reagan, Dolores Hope and Carroll O’Connor.

* Legendary actress Dale Evans Rogers received the 1998 Guardian Angel Award from Child SHARE at a Nov. 7 gala at the Sony Pictures Plaza. More than 200 attended and raised more than $110,000 for Child SHARE, a Glendale-based organization dedicated to finding foster and adoptive homes for children through churches in Los Angeles County. “Entertainment Tonight” film critic Leonard Maltin emceed. Dale Evans and her late husband, Roy Rogers, adopted four children after they married in 1947, adding to the four children they already had between them (two adopted). They had one child together who died as a toddler. Past award recipients include California First Lady Gayle Wilson, Olympian Rafer Johnson, UCLA coach emeritus John Wooden and late philanthropist Henry Salvatori.

* Pat Boone, Dick Van Patten, Stella Stevens, Robert Culp, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Lyle Waggoner and Gary Collins were among the 500 guests who attended the Nov. 8 “An Evening With the Stars” gala at the Beverly Hills Hotel. More than $150,000 was raised for the Pancreatic Cancer Research Program at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions. Michael Landon Jr., whose father died of the disease, spoke at the event. Pam Acosta, who lost her mother to pancreatic cancer, chaired the evening.

* The Special Children’s League Peninsula Committee raised about $30,000 for the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation at its 41st annual fund-raiser Nov. 2. About 280 attended the fashion show, luncheon, holiday boutique and silent auction at the Torrance Marriott Hotel. The foundation provides services for the developmentally disabled.

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