CHARITY SCORECARD

Four athletes--Wayne Gretzky, Thomas Hearns, Randall Cunningham and Jackie Joyner-Kersee--were honored at the 14th annual Cedars-Sinai Sports Spectacular on June 27 at Century Plaza Hotel & Tower in Century City. About 1,700 guests attended, raising $1.5 million to support the Cedars-Sinai Medical Genetics Birth Defects Center. Among the sports stars at the event were Rodney Peete, Junior Seau, Steve Garvey, Barry Switzer, Derek Fisher, Ann Meyers-Drysdale, Rhonda Windham and Sugar Ray Leonard. Gretzky received the All-Time Greatest Hockey Player award, Hearns a Lifetime Achievement award, Cunningham the Football Man of the Year award and Joyner-Kersee a Lifetime Achievement award. They were honored for their courage, honorable sportsmanship and contributions to professional sports. Beth Moskowitz chaired the event. Honorary co-chairs and emcees were baseball Hall-of-Famer Tommy Lasorda, KCBS-TV sports director Jim Hill, Minnesota Vikings football quarterback Peete, actress Holly Robinson-Peete and “Access Hollywood” host Pat O’Brien.

* Richard Carpenter was honored at a June 27 fund-raiser for the Youth Cultural Enrichment Program of Musical Theatre West, which introduces musical theater to underprivileged children. More than 250 people attended the event, held at Madison Restaurant & Bar in Long Beach, raising $20,000. Carpenter was given the Distinguished Patron of the Arts award, an engraved Waterford crystal clock donated by Bloomingdale’s, for his support of the arts in Long Beach. Carpenter and his late sister, Karen Carpenter, began their musical careers as students at Cal State Long Beach, which houses the Richard & Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center.

* The March of Dimes “Healthy Babies, Healthy Futures Awards Dinner” honored four African Americans for humanitarian efforts to enhance the lives of African American babies and their families. The June 26 event, held at the Regal Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles and attended by about 300, raised $75,000 for research, public and professional education, community service programs and advocacy for mothers and babies. The honorees were Dr. Xylina Bean of King/Drew Medical Center; Kenneth Bentley of Nestle Inc.; photographer Howard Bingham; and Virginia Hunter, an associate dean and professor at Cal State L.A.

Has your group held a charity fund-raiser recently? We will report on selected local benefits. Please tell us about your organization and the charity you support, how much you raised, how the charity uses your gift and the details of your event. Send a letter or news release to Charity Scorecard, Southern California Living, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053, or fax to (213) 237-4888. Submissions must reach us no more than one week after the benefit.