A Sneak Peek at Big Fashion Fund-Raiser
SAN DIEGO — The Country Friends, the countywide philanthropic group based in Rancho Santa Fe that annually hosts the largest outdoor fashion show in the United States, brought together 250 of its leading patrons Friday for a little preview of the September event at the new, massive estate of Robert and Pam Buie in Fairbanks Ranch.
Guests were welcome to inspect the ground floor--hung with paintings by Los Angeles artist Hampton Hall, whose works also decorate the Sultan of Brunei’s yacht--before heading out to the cocktails and buffet on the Indiana limestone terrace. Among the amusements here were looking in on the exercise pavilion, better equipped than similar rooms at many clubs, and stepping up to the golf tee, a platform at the edge of a fairly steep drop, from which the Buies send buckets of balls soaring high above the backstretch of their 35-acre spread.
Models from Nordstrom, which will present the Sept. 17 show, to be given as always on the lawn of the Inn at Rancho Sante Fe, moved slowly among the crowd showing off gowns from Scaasi, Victor Costa and Bob Mackie Boutique, the latter being a less-astonishingly expensive line by the designer to various celebrities. The roving mannequins took care to stay away from the potential dangers of the buffets laden with hors d’oeuvres from the Pacific Rim, the Caribbean, Italy and, according to caterer Tony Kopas, the “Confederate States.”
Connie McNally, chairman of the 37th annual “Appearance of Autumn”--the generic name traditionally applied to the daylong fund-raiser--said the Country Friends did something of an about-face at the close of Operation Desert Storm and decided to make this year’s theme “Salute to Style.” The recognition will go both to the military and to the spouses who remained on the home front; the wives of a total of nine admirals and Marine Corps generals will romp down the ramp as guest models.
“Desert Storm evoked so much patriotism that we wanted to recognize it in a special way, so we’re honoring military wives,” McNally said.
“It just seems like the right thing to do,” added Country Friends President Pat Wood. “San Diego is a military town.”
Since its founding in 1954 by a small group of North County women--founding President Johanne Wenz remains active and attended the Friday preview party--Country Friends has distributed more than $3 million among a countywide roster of beneficiaries, primarily human-care organizations. Those chosen to benefit from “Salute to Style” are St. Clare’s Home in Escondido; T.E.R.I. (Training and Education for Retarded Individuals) Inc. in Oceanside; the Aseltine School in Hillcrest and the Voices for Children program in the San Diego County courts system.
Maureen Cronin is co-chairman of a sizable committee that includes Joyce Glazer, Lynn Adkison, Flo Bible, Mary Ann Fitch, Tari Wood, Jeek and Bob Rodgers, Ellie Johns, Teri Smith, Betty Holup, Nan Werner, Jeanne McMullin, Valerie Weaver, Dolores Buxton, Peggy Matthews, Trish Fox, Bernice Dohna, Dian Peet, Mili Atchison, Carol Magoffin, Irene Barker, Betty Dodge, Priscilla Webb, Dickey Pollich, Suzy Sullivan, Jodi Bible, Pat Kawano and Louarn Fleet.
More than 20 of the youngsters in the cast of the San Diego Junior Theatre’s current production of “The Music Man” worked the silent auction boards and later performed at “The River City Social,” the third annual benefit for the theater arts program for youths age 6 to 18.
Given in the courtyard of Casa del Prado in Balboa Park, the social drew some 200 supporters for an informal summer picnic based on the small-town Iowa setting in the Meredith Wilson musical. A barbershop quartet harmonized mightily while guests patrolled the auction boards, which offered such unusual items as the opportunity for a couple to spend a day at San Diego Fire Station No. 1, including meals with the firefighters and ride-alongs to the scenes of emergencies.
A live auction that followed the dinner of smoked ham and potato salad (despite the sundae bar, some guests broke into their party favor boxes of Cracker Jack early) offered a selection of meals with elected officials, of which the most extravagant included air fare for two for a Sacramento lunch with Governor Pete Wilson.
Theater board chairman Roseanne Luth said the projected proceeds of $10,000 will see the performing arts group through its current fiscal year.
“Based on what other theaters in town are doing, I think we’re doing fabulously,” she said. “But we’ve got something they don’t have--we’ve got the kids.”
Party chairwoman Dianne Campbell scheduled dancing until, as she said, “the bewitching hour.” This midnight curfew followed a parade around the courtyard by the youthful performers, who closed their presentation, almost inevitably, with the flashy fanfares of “76 Trombones.”
The guest list included John and Kathy Lynch, Ron and Mary Ann Blair, Kevin Kelly, Tom and Kathy Malinowsi, Gary and Maureen Sage, Jim and Connie Horton, Barry and Pat Rogers, Peter and Anne Zouvas, Rick and Suzy Garrett, Frank and Carolyn Haag, Jeff and Cindy Cavignac, Jan Thompson, Pat Nollet and Tony and Barbara Palmeri.
Fund-raising imitated art--to the degree that anyone might concede that Italian horse operas are art--the other Friday at “Spaghetti Western,” given by the Museum of Photographic Arts to attract membership to its new Associates Council support group.
The campy, Western-style frolic, given at the Little Italy studio shared by noted photographers Stephen Simpson and Jeremiah Sullivan, sold out with an attendance of 120, perhaps less because of the buffalo carpaccio passed on trays than the make-believe ambience of a rather good “bad” film.
“The Associates is going to be a cool group,” avowed Associates Council chairman Leesie van Roon, who offered as proof such diversions as the Texas two-step lessons given by professional dancers Diana Kime and John Lorne, and the photographic “shoot-out” staged by co-host Sullivan, which involved participants in the rigors of a professional photography session.
Arthur Ollman, director of the Museum of Photographic Arts, said the evening was staged as an event suitable to young professionals. “It didn’t make sense to have a stodgy event when we could bring them to a leading professional studio and let them see how it’s done,” he said.
The long-term effect of Associates Council membership was addressed by museum board President Norma Assam, who said, “We need to get young people who are interested in the arts to start ‘growing up,’ so that they’ll be the support of institutions in the future. Their pocketbooks may be small now, but as they grow, we want to grow with them.”
For the record, the restaurant that catered the affair, Montanas American Grill, offered rotelli pasta with pesto sauce and other items, but no spaghetti. As compensation, a television monitor behind the buffet continuously played the definitive spaghetti Western, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” through the evening.
The guest list included Anne and Mark Fehlman, Pamela Bogardus, Alberta and Charles Feurzeig, Faiya and Mickey Fredman, Jann Passler, Anne Poppe and Richard Opper, Phyllis Epstein, Su-Mei Yu, Rene and Marilyn Gelet, Heather Kunz, Beverly and Joe Glickman, and Debra and Tim Mills.
