Dinner Fetes Paraplegic Sports Star

Casa Colina kicks off its 50th anniversary $3.5-million capital campaign Nov. 7 with a “Tribute to Courage” dinner-dance at the Century Plaza honoring paraplegic sports star David B. Kiley.

Thomas V. Jones, chairman of Northrop Aircraft Corp., is honorary campaign chairman. He’s a native of Pomona, where Casa Colina is located and gives medical and vocational rehabilitation to the disabled.

Tommy Lasorda is honorary chairman of the $250-per-person black-tie affair.

Kiley, a paraplegic since age 29, when he lost the use of his legs in a Big Bear accident, created Casa Colina’s wheelchair sports program in which hundreds of disabled youth and adults participate. He is coach and guard for the Casa Colina Condors wheelchair basketball team, four times national champions. He also ranks third best in tennis and racquetball worldwide among wheelchair athletes.

More in on the planning are Dale E. Easell, president of Casa Colina; Randel L. Perkins, event chairman for the foundation, and James B. Straley, chairman of the foundation.

In celebration of the first Distinguished Artists Forum, Chancellor W. Ann Reynolds of the California State University hosts a reception Wednesday evening at the state university residence in Bel-Air.

Always supporters of the arts, Chairman Charles E. Cook and President and CEO Randolph B. Stockwell and the directors and officers of Community Bank will celebrate 40 “successful years of service” for the bank with a reception and an invitational tribute to the current “MAYA: Treasures of an Ancient Civilization” exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

The silver-bordered invites are for Monday evening.

The lovely three-story 20-room English Tudor house belonging to the Sid Adairs was one of the earliest houses begun in Hancock Park. It’s been redecorated by 27 members of the International Society of Interior Designers and stays open for public viewing through Nov. 10 as a benefit for United Way. Tickets at the door are $10, Tuesday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Friday evenings from 5 to 9 p.m.

United Way agencies are making a bundle by hosting individual benefit parties. Judy Langdon and Hathaway Auxiliary for Hathaway Home for Children staged cocktails and hors d’oeuvres Tuesday night. Earlier this month the Hancock Park Historical Society got a look at the house and the Family Service Agency of Rio Hondo Area celebrated with champagne. Nov. 7, Richstone Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse tours the house, with Dorothy Courtney involved, and Nov. 20, Jennifer Owens and the Los Angeles Commission of Assaults Against Women plan a benefit to aid the L.A. Rape and Battering Hotline.

The works of primitive artist Kay Ameche, protegee of the late Streeter Blair, created the colorful ambiance for the benefit art show Tuesday evening at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills. The Alfred J. Firestein Diabetes Unit at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center was the beneficiary. Gavin MacLeod, who collects her work, was in the forefront.

Ameche, we hear, has been collected by Presidents Reagan and Eisenhower, Nelson Rockefeller, George Burns, Frank Sinatra, the Dohenys, Katharine Hepburn, Elton John, Betty Corday and Dudley Moore.

The benefit committee: Mmes. Gary M. Borofsky, Michael A. Bush and James L. Klinenberg.

George Burns and the Motion Picture and Television Fund dedicated the George Burns Intensive Care Unit at the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills this week.

Circle in Red:

Phi Sigma Sigma sorority hosts a reunion luncheon and Loehmann’s fashion show and auction Saturday at the Riviera Country Club. Proceeds go to the National Kidney Foundation. . . .

The first Steve Allen Celebrity Golf Tournament benefitting the Jeffrey Foundation for handicapped children is Monday at the Braemar Country Club in Tarzana. . . .

When his son’s career was just beginning, Eli Orowitz died of a heart attack. Now, the father of Michael Landon will receive a tribute Saturday evening at the Performers for Hope chapter of the City of Hope dinner in the Versailles Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton. A foundation for heart research will be funded with proceeds. Lorne Greene, who played Landon’s father, Ben Cartwright, during the 14-year run of “Bonanza,” is dinner chairman and Mrs. Ruth Bernard, Performers president, is coordinating the affair. . . .

The 11th annual Michelob Light-Steve Garvey Sports Classic (a tennis tournament with more than 100 celebrities Saturday at Calabasas Park Tennis Club, and a five- and 10-kilometer run at Pierce College in Woodland Hills Sunday) is expected to raise more than $75,000 for the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Garvey, who succeeded Frank Sinatra last year as national campaign chairman of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, has raised more than $550,000 for charity. That’s dedication. . . .

Sylvia Schulman and Katherine Lurie head the theater party at the performance of “Aren’t We All?” starring Claudette Colbert and Rex Harrison Wednesday at the Wilshire Theater. The board of directors of the International Student Center at UCLA are hosts. . . .

Physicians of St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood are to be honored Friday evening at the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul St. Luke’s Dinner. Abbey Rents is erecting white tenting and chandeliers for sparkly ambiance for 350. Joe Moshay’s strolling strings and orchestra are booked, and Walter Shaw is concocting diet-conscious cuisine. . . .

Holly Mitchell stages the musical fashion review, “The Best of Times,” with Fashions by Caritta of Rodeo Drive, Thursday for the Valley Committee of the Spastic Children’s League.