The Crowd: The great outdoors serves as backdrop for 3 local charitable events
The second annual Festival of OC Chefs, an evening of fabulous food under balmy summer skies, welcomed some 400 charitable souls supporting the educational and spiritual programs of KidWorks Santa Ana.
The tony Newport Beach Country Club on Coast Highway welcomed 34 local “kings of the kitchen” to share their culinary talents with the excited crowd mingling and tasting.
Top-shelf wineries including Duckhorn, Crown Point, Schramsberg, Three Sticks and Chateau Montelena poured generously, complementing the extravagant food fare.
Co-chaired by Lisa and Cory Adler, Tracy and Kevin Murphy, and Kyle and David Team, the evening raised an impressive $820,000.
A few of the many local chefs making this possible were event host chef Graeme Blair from Newport Beach Country Club joining Pascal Olhats, Baja Shellfish; Jacob Davis, Balboa Bay Resort and Club; Victor Soto, Cannery Seafood of the Pacific; Bert Agor Jr., Crestavilla and Andy Huynh, Nobu Newport Beach. Returning this year from Loews Vanderbilt Nashville, was chef Charly Houegban.
Special guests spotted in the crowd supporting KidWorks were Linda Maggard, Joey Booth, Karin and Jeff Garell, Chase Watson, Sue and Nick Willett, Leticia and Pat Merrell and Camille and Tim Strader Jr.
KidWorks CEO David Benevides was on hand to thank the generous patrons. Flashback Heart Attack had everyone dancing into the dark of night.
A hole in one for kids in need
A whopping sum of half a million dollars was raised at the 40th annual Childhelp Rich Saul Memorial Golf Classic held at the Monarch Beach Golf Links, Dana Point.
The 10th anniversary tournament was co-chaired by Childhelp ambassadors Debra Violette and Cathie Caporaso, who worked with Eileen Saul to coordinate the golf outing in memory of her late husband.
Over the past 15 years, during which the golf event has teed off 10 times, $6 million has been raised to assist Childhelp programs supporting children who found themselves at the final rung on the child welfare ladder.
Making the largess possible were platinum title sponsors Jacquie and Michael Casey, in addition to grand support from donors including Justin Wheeler and the Wheeler Family Trust, Matt Fletcher of Conner, Fletcher & Hedenkamp LLP, and Jim Violette of Fidelity National Financial.
Also front and center for Childhelp were the Cleo A. Bluth Charitable Foundation, O’Connell Family Foundation and Frank Suryan from Lyon Living, among many others.
Taking home the winning golf trophies were Sam Perricone Jr., Chris Justine Boster, Tyler Smith and Kolin Ozonian. A gala dinner followed the day of golf. Among the dinner crowd were Childhelp donors and committee members Susan Hill, Patti and Jim Edwards, Patricia Ford, Christine Johnson, Joyce Simon and Diana and Chris Miner.
‘Protect Our Planned Parenthood’ event held
Sherman Library & Gardens in Corona del Mar hosted a recent Sunday evening gathering of about 250 local supporters of the Community Action Fund of Planned Parenthood of Orange & San Bernardino Counties.
The Community Action Fund serves as the political arm of local Planned Parenthood chapters. In response to the recent Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe vs. Wade, members of the committee and guests came together to raise funds in support of political action with the purpose of defeating anti-abortion initiatives across the country. Monies raised will go to assist campaign costs of pro-choice candidates running for political office in the region.
The dinner event was co-chaired by Cyd Swerdlow, Keiko Sakamoto-Witte, Sophie Mashayedi and Teddie Ray. Organizers billed the summer event as “Protect Our Planned Parenthood.”
Attendees were requested to wear all white clothing, a nod to the women suffragette movement of the early 20th century. By the evening’s end, $255,000 was raised for the Action Fund, according to organizers.
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