Crowning and Clowning

The event: A benefit roast of Larry

Tenney, chairman of the board of the Volunteer Center of Greater Orange County. About 100 of Tenney’s colleagues and friends attended the dinner Friday at Orange Hill restaurant in Orange.

Well-done roast: Tenney arrived at the hilltop restaurant expecting a board meeting; instead, he was greeted by an excited throng yelling, “Larry, Larry!”

Organizers made him king for the night, inviting Tenney to wear a crown and robe and share a table for two with wife Stephanie in the middle of the dance floor.

Tenney’s friends and co-workers at Nelson Communications Group in Irvine poked fun at their king. “Things will be tough around the office--he’s going to be wearing that crown,” joked Tom Wilck, a partner.

Board chairmen usually serve a one-year term, but Tenney served three. “We usually don’t do a roast, but he’s made a real impact,” said Carol Stone, the center’s president and CEO. “Wherever he goes, he talks about volunteerism.”

Quote: “People get excited to volunteer

during the holidays. They want to ‘adopt’ a family or provide food for the needy,” said Francisca Hawkins, the center’s director of community mobilization. “But in January, February and March, the nonprofits don’t receive as much help from the community.”

Volunteers needed: Each year the Volunteer Center mobilizes more than 33,000 people to serve more than 2,000 local nonprofit organizations.

Among the volunteer opportunities available are programs to help seniors, beach cleanups, clothes drives and food collections. (A weekly listing of How You Can Help appears on this page.)

The Santa Ana-based center recently published the county’s first Mentor Resource Directory, which lists more than 50 agencies that need people to mentor to youth at risk.

(For a free copy, call the center hotline at [714] 953-5757, Ext. 106.)

Faces: Norman Denton, incoming board president; Donna Lucas; Jim Asp; Ross Peters and Linda White-Peters; Bob Clay and Peggy Goldwater Clay; Lisa Fujimoto; Susan DeSantis; Lou and Agnes Banas; Steve Kwong; Janet Schwartz; Bill and Mariellen Ross; John and Ellen Simon; Chris Smith; Cindy Beyl; Richard McDowell; Jim and Nancy Dooley; Paul and Eleanor Henrichs; and JoAnn Tenney.

Bottom Line: The $75-per-person dinner was expected to net about $10,000 for the center’s Youth Program. The program encourages Orange County teens to volunteer in their community.