The Crowd

B.W. COOK

Robert Dale Johnston presented the young women of the Assistance

League of Newport-Mesa at the organization’s 2000 Medallion Debutante

Ball.

The Saturday evening affair, held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Irvine,

focused attention on 11 young women from the Newport-Mesa community who

have served four or more years of community service sponsored by the

Assistance League.

Organized efforts by the league, including the Children’s Dental

Health Center, Operation School Bell, Kids on the Block, the Assistance

League Thrift Shop and Treasures on Consignment have offered the

Assisteens, as they are called, the opportunity to help those less

fortunate.

It is a program (and a four-year experience) that is meant to change

and to shape young lives. It’s a program designed to create citizens who

will contribute to society throughout a lifetime of service and

volunteerism. And, it is a program filled with generations of proud

parents and children in the Newport-Mesa community who have been

supporting the Assistance League for more than 50 years.

Enough emphasis cannot be placed on the spirit of community service

associated with this presentation of debutantes.

For it is not the magnificent white gowns worn by the young women, nor

the verdant floral sprays adorning the ballroom, not even the tears in

the eyes of mom and dad as their child parades the runway symbolically

transforming from child to young woman, that matters most.

It is, hopefully, the concept of selflessness that has been instilled

in these young people that will guide them throughout life, help them in

times of stress, despair, loneliness, reminding them that all people on

this planet share the same voyage.

Not all travel with the same ticket, however. This is a fact that also

has been made clear through community service. We are all born equally,

yet our circumstances may be far from equal. The essence of community

service is not just some altruistic gesture of goodwill.

It is, or must be, a genuine desire to give someone else the

opportunity to succeed, to find a better path, to be allowed some comfort

and peace in what may be an otherwise difficult if not miserable

existence.

The Medallion Debutante Ball Committee was comprised of chairman Betty

Anne Harline, Assisteen coordinators Mrs. Larry Boyd, Mrs. Marshall

Duffield, and Mrs. James McCormick, and members at large serving in

various capacities including Mrs. Tom Schauppner, Mrs. Harvey Halvorsen,

Mrs. Brian Brooks, Mrs. Bruce Blumberg, Mrs. Vaughn Cassingham, Mrs.

Thomas Butterworth and Mrs. Herbert Smith, to recognize only a selection

of dedicated mothers.

Florist Allen Beck provided a magnificent backdrop for the evening,

featuring the melodic sounds of orchestra leader Barry Cole and his

Sounds of Music society band. The Hyatt Regency Hotel served a dinner of

hoisin glazed filet mignon with a special dessert of lemon brulee on a

macadamia nut torte as introductions and speeches were made with emotions

running high.

Mrs. Roger Allen Alford, president of the Assistance League, joined

fellow auxiliary leaders Mrs. Michael Fox, Mrs. Robert Foley, Mrs. Peter

Tennyson, Mrs William Ferris and Mrs. John Rallis for the formal

presentation of the young women.

The final message: Go out and beyond the borders of your childhood and

make a difference in the world. Make your parents proud, make society

proud to count you as a member, and be the very best person you can be.

Good luck and congratulations to all the Assisteens of 2000.