Racing to Thank Triathlon Volunteers and Sponsors

Volunteers and sponsors of the recent Orange County Performing Arts Center Triathlon--in which athletes swam, biked and ran in Mission Viejo--gathered Friday in a banquet room at the Westin South Coast Plaza hotel.

The Triathlon was hosted by the Guilds of the Performing Arts Center, which also pulled together the after-work thank-you party. Several hundred guests helped themselves to hors d’oeuvres and queued at cash bars while a lounge band played light rock.

Who’s Who

Among guests were Debbie Novak, president of the Cabaret Chapter of the Guilds, and Marge Culver, a Cabaret chapter member and chairwoman of the cocktail party.

Pat Blandford, chairwoman of the George Gershwin Chapter, attended, as did Jeanette Kleist, who heads the Beverly Sills Chapter. Kleist was one of the volunteers registering athletes the day before the triathlon. Her husband’s engineering firm, GeoSoils, was a race sponsor.

The Performing Arts Center has spawned 36 adult fund-raising chapters and five junior chapters. Incoming All Guilds Chairwoman Fiona Petersen made the rounds at the thank-you party. Representatives from the triathlon’s three major sponsors--First Interstate, Mazda Motor of America and The Times Orange County--also attended.

And the Winner Is

Fran Drosman of Irvine volunteered to help out on race day.

“I sat on a street corner. It was no big deal,” Drosman remembered.

The big deal was when she found out last week that she’d won a Mazda Miata--the one volunteer among more than 1,000 rewarded with a shiny new car.

“They called and told me, and I said, ‘Is this a joke? ‘ “ Drosman said.

On Friday, she had a few other questions. “What color is it?” Drosman asked party hosts of her new sports car. “Does it have a radio?”

Party Talk

Eating, drinking, talking about sports--they go together, don’t they?

The hotel stocked buffets with fettuccine Alfredo, baron of beef, veal meatballs, egg rolls, quiche, cheeses, vegetables and fruit.

With a drink in one hand and a plate of hors d’oeuvres in the other, Norm Denton recalled the race day fondly.

“It’s real inspiring, and it’s a lot of fun, too,” said Denton, who chaired the event last year. He mentioned that a magazine for triathletes had named the event among the top 10 triathlons in the United States. And he noted that the presence of more than 100 three-person corporate teams--one person swims, one bikes, one runs--created “a race within a race.”

“You had local banks competing against other local banks, accounting firms against accounting firms and so on. These are competitive people anyway. Get ‘em in a race against each other . . . . “ Denton said, shaking his head and laughing.