The Crowd

B.W. Cook

The 38th annual all-guilds fashion show benefiting Children’s Hospital

of Orange County held a patron brunch last Sunday at The Center Club,

Costa Mesa.

An enormous turnout boosted the positive outlook for fashion show

general chairman Christina Hughes of the Glass Slipper Guild.

Putting on the event is a major responsibility. The two-event fashion

show, which includes a luncheon and a dinner show set for Wednesday at

the Anaheim Marriott, is expected to raise nearly $200,000 for the

hospital.

Hughes is assisted this year in coordinating the massive effort by a

very dedicated local team that includes Sylvia Burnett, Mary Maldonado,

Marcia Griffin, Dana Davis, Beverly Singer, Susan Carter, Kim Lazarus,

Anne Neish, Carol Ojers, Liz Clem, Sue Krause, Jean Hamann, Lula

Hatfield, Andrea Northcote, Fran Paulson, Pat Calderone, Frances Stawicki

and Helen Wardner.

As spring fashions from St. John Knits were displayed and paraded

throughout the Center Club, Marcia Griffin of the Littlest Angel Guild

and Mary Moldanado of the Tres Osos Guild handled the executive chair

duties of the patron brunch with class.

Silent auction items enticed the locals to bid for the kids to help

underwrite the last-minute details for the big event next week.

Honored patrons of the event are Marilyn and Don Bailey, Jean and Fred

Hamann, Robert and Peggy Sprague, Sally Gallagher, Bonnie and Michael

Duckworth, Nancy Edgall, Peggy Holland, Lois Montgomery, and Tom and

Kathy Hacker, to name only a few.

The fashion show, which began in 1963, even before the hospital

officially opened, has come a long way. In its first outing, the gallant

ladies and gents raised $2,332.05. Last year, the volunteers exceeded the

$200,000 mark.

In all, the production has assisted the hospital with $3.4 million in

donations. Based on the enthusiastic turnout at the patron brunch, a

sellout is once again anticipated.

For last-minute reservations, call the hospital’s Guild Office at

(714) 532 8690. Tickets to either the luncheon or dinner are $65 per

person.

The Smithsonian Institute’s secretary, Lawrence Small, flew in to

Orange County last week for a small, private dinner party on the coast at

the home of Suzanne and Jim Mellor.

It was the first official visit to the West Coast by Small, recently

installed as the 11th secretary of the institute in Washington, D.C.

Mellor, the former chairman and CEO of General Dynamics, and a board

member of the National Museum of American History, hosted Small in order

to introduce local philanthropists to the work of the Smithsonian, and to

establish strong California ties with the new secretary.

Overlooking the California coast at sunset, the confab of local

intelligentsia raised their wine glasses to the association. Included in

the gathering were the esteemed UCI Chancellor Ralph Cicerone and his

equally formidable wife, Carol; the Irvine Co. executive David Fields and

his wife, Karla; and Gibson Dunn and Crutcher chairman Ronald Beard and

his wife, Karin.

Also on hand to meet Small were Steve Johnson, a founding partner of

the venture capital firm Johnson Technology Group; retired chair of H.C.

Price, Harold and Sandra Price; Raymond Watson, vice chair of the Irvine

Co.; and the distinguished couple Ivan and Nina Selin. Ivan Selin is the

CEO of Phoenix International and the board chair for the National Museum

of American History.

Clearly, a most accomplished guest list. Beyond the social connection,

the Mellor dinner party was in part designed to foster further

interaction between The Smithsonian and local institutions of learning.

Later in the week, David and Karla Fields organized a dinner at the

Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Science and

Engineering on behalf of the National Museum of American History. Steve

Johnson sponsored the Smithsonian’s Jazz Masterworks Orchestra to

entertain the Newport crowd following the Beckman Center dinner.

We’ll be hearing a great deal more about the Smithsonian connection in

months ahead.

B.W. COOK’S column appears every Thursday and Saturday.