Honoring Women Who Fly in the Face of Convention

“Women are bad to women.”

It was the last comment you’d expect Laurie MacEachern to make at a gathering of 700 women to celebrate the progress of women in the workplace and the community.

But MacEachern was dead serious when she spoke those words at a VIP reception preceding the annual Amelia Earhart Awards luncheon, at which she and other women were honored. The event was sponsored by the UCI Extension Women’s Opportunities Center.

“Women need to empower each other, work together--not undercut each other,” MacEachern said last week as she mingled with guests who included UC Irvine Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening and Chancellor-Select Ralph J. Cicerone on a sunlit terrace at the Hyatt Regency Irvine.

MacEachern knows. As a self-made multimillionaire who has held jobs from restaurant owner to obstetrical nurse--and who is president of ProCare One, a nursing registry in Santa Ana that employs about 1,200 medical professionals--she has seen the “jealousy and destructive . . . competition” that can keep women from realizing their potential.

“Women can be like elephants led around by a tight little string,” said MacEachern, 43, a single mother of two. “They are so powerful, strong, and yet so often they let everything else get in the way. In my business, I try to empower women, help them rid themselves of negative energy so they can be self-reliant and free.”

During the luncheon where Sally K. Ride, America’s first female astronaut, was the keynote speaker, MacEachern received the opportunities center’s first Amelia Earhart Award for Corporate Leadership.

ProCare One is “no ordinary company--it is owned and managed by women,” said Judy Rosener, a professor at UCI’s Graduate School of Management, as she addressed the crowd. “There are a few male employees, but it is committed to the development and advancement of women.”

ProCare One employs many women who are the sole support of their families. Its work and management policies include top pay, flexible hours, check advancements, short-term loans and a family-oriented newsletter.

“I’m thrilled,” MacEachern said of receiving her award. “When someone from the outside recognizes that you’ve done something special, it’s a major compliment.”

Also recognized for her leadership in encouraging opportunity for women was Tricia Nichols of Laguna Beach, winner of the Amelia Earhart Award for Individual Leadership.

Nichols has donated time and financial support to nonprofit Orange County organizations such as Girls Inc., to which she gave $200,000, and to St. Joseph Ballet, the Laguna Art Museum, the Marine Institute and Planned Parenthood.

Nichols told luncheon guests that, while she was a great admirer of Earhart’s--the first woman to pilot an airplane across the Atlantic--she had one thing in her life that Amelia didn’t have: “A really skilled navigator.”

“That’s my husband, Al Nichols,” said Nichols, herself a pilot. “He has validated me through 12 years of a lot of uncharted territory.”

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Introduced by Wilkening, former astronaut Ride told the crowd that the space program has come a long way since she flew her first Challenger mission in 1981.

“Today, 20% of astronauts are women, and 31 have flown,” said Ride, a physics professor at UC San Diego. “It’s more common for women to be on board a spaceflight than not.”

Net luncheon proceeds of more than $100,000 will go toward counseling services and scholarships provided by the opportunities center, a nonprofit branch of UCI Extension that provides strategic career planning and job search support to its 1,500 members. Membership dues are $75 a year, center director Melba Slavin said. “But we never turn anyone away for inability to pay.”

Information: (714) 949- 824-7128.

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Animal House: Pigs on the patio, horses in the breezeway--at the Center Club in Costa Mesa?

That was the scene last week when the Orange County Chapter of the American Cancer Society staged a volunteer-recruitment party for its upcoming Cattle Baron’s Ball.

“This is a preview of what’s to come,” said professional event planner Sharon Esterley, who is overseeing the benefit, which is expected to rake in about $300,000 for cancer research and education programs.

The event for about 1,000 is set to make its Orange County debut next spring at a location to be determined. Such events are already huge moneymakers in Dallas and the Silicon Valley.

“We’re looking to get 100 volunteers willing to make a major time commitment to making this event happen,” Esterley said.

The ball will feature a top entertainer, buffet-style dinner, games such as an electronic shootout and pig races, a casino and a general store loaded with merchandise donated by local merchants.

Guests, who will be invited to dress western, also will participate in silent and live auctions and line-dancing.

Volunteers are asked to work the night of the ball, provide auction items and attend meetings.

“The Texas gala task force has given us a lot of documentation on how to make this happen,” Esterley said. “And [organizers of] the Silicon Valley event are coming down here to provide training to our volunteers.”

For information: (949) 261-9446.

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Mark your calendar: The new Pinot Provence restaurant--owned by internationally acclaimed chef Joachim Splichal--at the Westin South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa will have its grand opening Aug. 5. Cast members of “Rent”--the Broadway musical opening the same night at the neighboring Orange County Performing Arts Center--will join center supporters for appetizers and fine wines.

Splichal lived in Provence, France, as a child, said restaurant spokesman Frank Groff. “He visited Provence to furnish this new restaurant and brought back 14 tons of antiques.”