Column: The Crowd: Circle of Life fundraiser benefits New Directions for Women

A breakfast of champions unfolded last week in the ballroom of Balboa Bay Resort.

More than 300 true champions came together for an early Monday morning breakfast on behalf of New Directions for Women that was in fact so much more than just another gathering for a worthy cause. It was a love-fest.

It was a coming together of citizens, truly invested in the purpose, the power and the passion of healing, helping and transitioning women out of desperate lives overtaken by dependence on alcohol, as well as other forms of substance addiction. This event was a gathering of family.

Not one individual was in attendance that morning with any motive or purpose other than making a difference for those assisted by the programs and outreach of New Directions.

Fittingly, the event was understated. Big donors remained in the background. No honors bestowed upon the powerful, influential or well-heeled. Instead, long-time volunteers from all walks of life were introduced and brought on stage to be recognized for five or more years of service to New Directions, inducted into what they termed their “Amethyst Society.”

Organizers billed the breakfast, their 10th annual such gathering, as the “Circle of Life Breakfast.” Now in its 40th year in the O.C., New Directions has transformed the lives of some 6,000 women including women coming to the facility with children and pregnant women.

More than 200 children have been born under New Directions’ care while their mothers were in treatment. The outreach of New Directions has gone far beyond the boundaries of Southern California. Today it enjoys a national reputation. Patients come to its village from points far and wide for treatment and recovery.

The Monday morning champions breakfast featured three inspirational life stories. Heart-wrenching, intensely personal, and baring all, a young woman stepped up to the podium and detailed her journey from alcohol abuse to drugs, to sexual abuse, financial ruin, career suicide, and estrangement from all that mattered in her life, from all whom she loved including parents, friends and a husband who left her. She said, “I didn’t blame him.”

One would have no clue looking at her. Her blonde hair, fresh-face looks and her eloquent speaking ability were a testament to her recent years of sobriety. Paying tribute to her parents for going into debt to cover treatment costs, she credited New Directions for transforming her life. The audience applauded generously.

Following the woman was a man wearing a starched white shirt, silk multi-colored bow tie and faded blue jeans.

He shared the story of his wife’s struggle with alcoholism while trying to raise their young toddler daughter. Perhaps most amazing was his sharing the fact that his wife happened to be a licensed professional therapist — proof that the disease of alcohol takes all prisoners, regardless of pedigree.

Her struggle, and his own would end their marriage, but like the woman speaker his former wife is sober, doing well and back in practice helping her clients.

Finally, a six-year-old little girl who was a daughter of a woman who went through treatment at New Directions addressed the audience. With the poise and vocabulary of a much older child, this six-year-old detailed her experience with her mother at New Directions. It was the very definition of the word “inspiration.”

“I would like to grow up and become an art teacher and return to New Directions to work with the patients,” she told the rapt crowd.

At the conclusion of her talk, she said: “It would be very nice if you would consider making a donation.”

That was the icing on the cake. One could hear wallets opening across the room.

The glue for the morning confab came from a trio of New Directions leaders, much admired for their service to the cause. Tania Bhattacharyya, executive director of the foundation, was a stand-out detailing the recent progress of New Directions.

She was joined by Sue Bright, the newly appointed executive director coming to New Directions from her former similar position in Philadelphia, Penn.

Finally, the much-respected and long-serving Becky Flood soon to depart her post as executive director, capped off the breakfast event thanking the community for its dedication and years of support including their “time, talent and treasure.”

Major sponsor Carole Pickup handled the invocation, joining her family including former husband Dick Pickup, son Todd Pickup and his wife Natalie and daughter Devon Martin and her husband Kevin Martin, all stewards of the Balboa Bay Resort and Club, as well as generous underwriters of the event.

New Directions Foundation Board Chair Ann Premazon welcomed Devon Martin and Allison Wilder to the stage offering a tribute to Wilder’s recently departed father James Lynwood “Lyn” Wilder, Jr. who was one of New Directions’ most avid patrons and boosters over many decades since its founding.

To learn more about the work of New Directions for Women, visit newdirectionsforwomen.org.

B.W. COOK is editor of the Bay Window, the official publication of the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach.