Ladies and Gents, Get Out Those Planners
Never mind that you’ve only just swept away the last speck of confetti.
Leaders of nonprofit organizations have already dreamed up another series of bashes to keep you celebrating in the new year.
A sampling: Bill Cosby at the Pond. A Cattle Baron’s Ball. A tented black-tie gala on the Costa Mesa property recently donated to the Orange County Performing Arts Center. A salute to local scientists. A Beethoven festival.
Some events, such as the Jan. 30 Front & Center benefit for Cal State Fullerton starring Cosby, will mix big-name entertainers with an elegant, sit-down feast.
Others, such as next fall’s Cattle Baron’s Ball to benefit the Orange County Chapter of the American Cancer Society, will feature pig races and ranch-style grub.
But their organizers share a common goal: the creation of an event so fun-packed it keeps you coming back year after year.
Benefits are as much about building respect for an organization as they are about raking in big bucks, insiders say.
Front & Center, for example, gives Cal State Fullerton the opportunity to stage an event “of such high caliber that attendees leave it with a higher appreciation of the university than when they arrived,” said Larry Zucker, the university’s director of development.
Founded in 1995, Front & Center has showcased speakers Walter Cronkite and Colin Powell and netted more than $750,000 for university scholarships.
Twelve-time Emmy-winner Carl Reiner will emcee this year’s event at the Pond in Anaheim.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” said Reiner, creator of the TV classic “The Dick Van Dyke Show.” “Cosby is the finest monologuist we have working today. His strength is that he sees everything through a prism of the ridiculous. He can open a refrigerator, do 15 minutes on what’s in it, and make you laugh.”
Organizers of the Orange County Chapter of the American Cancer Society’s Cattle Baron’s Ball hope to attract 1,000 guests to the fall event, whose date and location are to be determined.
“This is going to be the biggest fund-raiser ever for our chapter,” spokeswoman Margaret Edwards said.
Guests--who will be invited to dress in anything from ball gowns to leather duds--will belly up to gaming tables to win play money. They’ll be able to spend their winnings at a general store featuring upscale goods donated by local vendors.
“We’ll have fabulous one-of-a-kind items,” Edwards said, “Everything from computers to fur coats.”
Also on the agenda: races featuring trained Alaskan pigs. Each pig will have its own star trailer, Edwards said. “The ASPCA wants us to keep the pigs in the best condition possible.”
More social highlights for ‘99:
* The Pacific Symphony will celebrate its 20th anniversary May 15 with a black-tie soiree for as many as 1,000 people, featuring pop singer Maureen McGovern.
The tented gala--to be staged on the six-acre parcel of land recently donated to the Orange County Performing Art Center by the Segerstrom family--will also feature cabaret entertainment and a formal sit-down dinner, said Tiffany & Co. vice president Jo Qualls, who is co-chairing the benefit with Sharon Lesk.
Getting permission to use the land was a social coup, organizers said.
“In our view, the chance to have the gala on the property that will one day be the site of [a new concert hall that Pacific Symphony would use] is very exciting,” said John Forsyte, the orchestra’s executive director.
“It gives us the opportunity to talk about what that will mean to us. One day, we hope to unveil an orchestra primed for the 21st century and the challenges the new hall will bring to us. With a goal of $1 million in proceeds, this gala is the first bold step toward that end.”
* The new Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana is making plans to honor two Orange County names in science--Apollo II astronaut Buzz Aldrin of Laguna Beach and geophysicist Ralph Cicerone, UC Irvine’s new chancellor.
“Since 1999 marks the 30th anniversary of man’s walk on the moon, we’re giving a lot of thought to honoring Buzz Aldrin and that whole adventure at our annual gala in the fall,” said Karen Johnson, the science center’s executive director.
Another event on the center’s drawing board: a spring tribute to Cicerone, who will receive the prestigious Bower Award for his contributions to science from the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on April 29.
“The Franklin Institute has told us they would be delighted to come out here and do another award ceremony,” Johnson said. “Wouldn’t that make a great luncheon or dinner?”
* The Philharmonic Society of Orange County has several social events planned around the staging of its Beethoven Festival this spring:
On April 25, Too Hot Tamales--TV Food Network chefs Susana Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken, owners of the popular Border Grill restaurant in Santa Monica--will be the featured guests at a party for festival sponsors at the Pelican Hill home of Mary Kay and Louis VanderMolen.
On May 17, an opening-night champagne reception will be held at the center for 3,000 people attending the first concert of Beethoven Symphonies Week.
On May 22 at Founder’s Hall and backstage at the center, the festival will close with a party honoring Sir John Eliot Gardiner, conductor of the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique.
“Social events help us build excitement about what we’re doing here in Orange County,” said Dean Corey, the society’s executive director. “What builds an organization is one person talking to another person, and that chain repeating itself over and over again.”