$83,000 Donated for Providence Dinner : House Party

About 100 major supporters of the Providence Speech and Hearing Center gathered in the back yard of Margaret and Carl Karcher’s Anaheim home on Saturday for a sultry afternoon of socializing and spending. Donations made at the garden party totaled $83,000, which will be used to underwrite Providence’s annual benefit dinner in October. Slow to start in that numbing weekend heat, the party perked up when Karcher donned a pair of awesome-surfer-dude sunglasses and stepped up to the podium to lead the underwriting auction. “What do you think of these glasses?” the hamburger mogul asked his guests. To giggles and applause, Karcher began his sales pitch for donations.

Inside

To get to the garden, guests glided through the large, cool (air-conditioned) rooms of the Karchers’ Spanish-style home. In fact, more than a few guests ducked back inside periodically to bask in the chilled air and peruse the mementos on display. The walls were filled with pictures of the Karchers’ 12 children, 44 grandchildren and six great-grandkids--a lot of smiling faces to photograph and frame. Several enormous Lladro figures and a porcelain Boehm Madonna and Child statue--commemorating the Karchers’ 50th anniversary last year--drew attention in the cherry-paneled library. The built-in library shelves also held several photographs of the Karchers with the Reagans and with Pope John Paul II, as well as a framed, handwritten note from Richard Nixon.

Out back, in the dappled shade of maple and avocado trees, guests sipped iced tea and cocktails and loaded tiny paper plates with meatballs and tortellini salad from Garduno’s restaurant in Costa Mesa; egg rolls from Chao’s Dynasty in Anaheim; pastries from La Dolce Vita in Corona del Mar and La Vie en Rose in Brea, and sponge cake soaked in coffee liqueur and iced with imported Italian cream cheese, a house specialty from Bistango in Irvine. Karcher--who says “cheeseburger” when posing for a picture--donated chili dogs with all the trimmings, served from a Carl’s Jr. cart named “The Blimp.”

The Cause

Providence Speech and Hearing Center, in the city of Orange, is a nonprofit agency providing a variety of audiological, speech and language services to people of all ages. O.T. Kenworthy, acting executive director, said the center sees about 5,000 patients yearly. For minimal fees, Providence provides treatments ranging from diagnosing hearing loss among the elderly to speech training for children born with cleft palates or other abnormalities. Kenworthy said 98% of the center’s $1.6-million annual budget comes from corporate and private donations--about a quarter of which are raised each year at the annual benefit dinner. “So this (underwriting party) is important to us,” he said.

Quote By being here you say that you’re interested in the center,” founder Margaret Anne Inman told the guests in her brief turn at the podium. “If you could see some of the children (who come to Providence), you would know you weren’t wasting your time giving up your Saturday afternoon.”