Raising Support Amid the Roses and Floral Prints
The event: Everything’s Coming Up Roses, a fashion show and luncheon staged by the Women’s Auxiliary of the Arthritis Foundation (Orange County and Long Beach branches). The festivities took place Saturday at the Doubletree Hotel Orange County Airport in Costa Mesa.
Fashions and flowers: More than 300 guests sat at tables decorated with blush-colored roses and watched models in flowing dresses, tunics and pants--courtesy of L.A. & Me in Camarillo--sashay down a runway. Guests also applauded special guest Celeste Holm, star of the TV show “Promised Land.”
Taking it seriously: May is National Arthritis Month, and there’s much the public can learn about the disease, said Suzanne Hoehl, executive director of the local branch in Fountain Valley. “Arthritis is [sometimes invoked as] a throwaway word that people use for all kinds of aches and pains,” she said. But those afflicted with one of the more than 100 types of arthritis know well that “it can be very life-threatening.”
Arthritis is defined as inflammation of the body joints, and it includes the often fatal lupus, crippling rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, which causes breakdown of cartilage.
In 1998, arthritis affected 42.7 million people in the United States, 300,000 of them children. “People assume it’s an old people’s disease, and it’s not,” Hoehl said.
Quote: “We’re the only women’s auxiliary for the Arthritis Foundation in the nation,” said Nan Warren, auxiliary president.
Faces: Janet Fryer, event chairwoman; Dorothy Jean; Gloria Biagiotti; Nancy Pharo; Lucy James; Alice Bonne; Dr. Robin Dore and Phylliss Salyer.
Bottom line: The luncheon netted about $20,000 for the foundation’s arthritis-specific exercise classes held throughout Orange County and Long Beach. Call (714) 436-1623 for program information.
What’s ahead: Sonoma County vintners will hold a Sonoma Tour & Wine Tasting to benefit the local Arthritis Foundation on May 26 at the Doubletree Hotel Orange County Airport in Costa Mesa. Call: (714) 436-1623.