Don Sutton Helps Deck Hall at Home Society’s Holly Ball

The Nightingales, the youngest auxiliary of the oldest and largest nonprofit child welfare agency in the state, decked the halls of the Ritz-Carlton for its Holly Ball on Saturday night. The dinner and auction raised more than $45,000 for Children’s Home Society.

According to Dorothy Fitzgerald, its director of volunteer services, the society has been busy.

“Our phones are ringing off the hook,” reported Fitzgerald, one of more than 300 guests at the ball. Not only are “girls having more babies than ever”--the society provides both counseling and adoption services to unmarried girls--but the organization is also experiencing an avalanche of interest on the part of adopted children and their natural parents in meeting each other. Fitzgerald’s own adopted son is a case in point.

“He’s 21, and he’s put a waiver in that he would like to meet his birth mother,” she said. “We’ve signed a waiver, too. Now if the birth parent comes in and signs a waiver also, we can in fact make arrangements for the meeting.”

Fitzgerald said adopted children of all ages have been contacting the agency.

“We had one who was 50 years old call the other day who was adopted out of our L.A. office,” she said. “Remember, we’ve been doing this since 1891. It happens. And it’s happened (at that age) that the parents were still alive.”

On deck for the Holly Ball--and hoping he’ll soon be decking the halls of fame--was Angels pitcher Don Sutton.

“Two-hundred ninety-five wins,” said Sutton, honorary chairman and a resident of Laguna Hills, “3,400 strikeouts.”

Only five pitchers in the history of Major League baseball have scored 300 wins and 3,000 strikeouts; with the exception of Gaylord Perry, who hasn’t been retired long enough to be eligible, all have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Sutton’s not taking any chances: He’s on the “Eat to Win” diet and follows a strength and flexibility program designed for Rams wide receivers and quarterbacks year round.

“If I were 22, 23 years old it would be different,” he said. “I could eat any which way and go to a party like this every night and not worry. But I’m 40. I’m starting my 22nd year of pro ball. I have to work three times as hard just to stay even.

“I eliminate almost all red meat and eat mostly carbohydrates. But I’m not a vegetarian and I’m not a freak. Every now and then I love to go get a big, greasy cheeseburger with bacon on it and two Corona beers.

“I want to go on being able to play ball--I’m not qualified to go to work in the real world.”

Not true: Sutton is looking into the possibilities of a position in baseball management or as a television sportscaster; he also happens to own six companies, mostly in financial planning and asset management, and Orange County commercial real estate.

Ball chairman for the second year was Marci Levine. According to Levine, she became involved with the care of children at the same time she met her husband--but not in the usual sense. Brian Levine told the story.

Met on Airlift

“I was a pediatrician,” he recalled, “Marci was a flight attendant for Eastern Airlines. We met during the orphan airlift out of Vietnam--she’d volunteered to be one of the stewardesses. She brought back an orphan whom I took care of at Childrens Hospital.

“The orphan eventually died, but after we were married, we named our first child after him. When Marci heard of Children’s Home Society, she just plunged right in.

“I’ve since gone into anesthesia. Marcie’s getting more into children; I’m getting away from them.”

Live auction items included a 1986 Honda Accord LX, which Sutton took home for $11,500. High bid of the evening was $15,500 for a 1986 Dodge Van now owned by Craig and Sharon Brubaker, who donated their photographic services at the ball: They sent each couple home with a complimentary portrait.

Pregnant, in pink and in the pink, was ball co-chairman Susan Crump; also there were chapter president Adrienne Ash, Ash’s husband Dennis, auctioneer, and John Brecht, master of ceremonies.

The 3,000 lights adorning the Christmas tree at Newport Center Fashion Island--at 110 feet, the nation’s tallest--were lit Friday night.

The rains having cleared, the winds having died down, Pat Boone, wearing summery white slacks, white Reeboks and a striped sweater suitable for a day on the boat, led thousands of onlookers in Christmas carols.

The lighting of the tree will be part of a PBS special produced by the Irvine Co. to air on Public Broadcasting System stations nationwide Dec. 24.

South Coast Plaza didn’t fare so well: The rain did not clear, the winds did not die Monday night, and the tree was in fact lighted by a lone electrician. Members of the Segerstrom family, developers of the Costa Mesa mall, celebrated with a cocktail party at the Westin South Coast Plaza nevertheless.