B.W. COOK -- The Crowd

Two of my favorite citizens, Jerry and Maralou Harrington of Newport

Beach, have been selected as the 2001 Sweetheart Couple for Hoag

Hospital.

The Harringtons were honored for their more than 20 years of support

at a recent reception thrown by Tiffany and Company, South Coast Plaza.

The Sweetheart Ball, an annual Hoag tradition in Newport held in

conjunction with the Valentine season in February, is a fund-raiser for

the Hoag Heart Institute.

The Harringtons are an excellent choice. They have a very big heart

when it comes to supporting Hoag and this entire community.

* * *

Another gal with a big heart and a giving personality is Adrienne

Brennan, the statuesque brunet former cop turned health and beauty

specialist. Brennan and partner Scott Fontana are launching a new line of

skin care anti-aging products they are calling “Freshezza.”

The duo is planning a public symposium to introduce Newport-Mesa to

the skin care line at the Westin South Coast Plaza Hotel on Nov. 1. The

event will be a charity for Human Options, a nonprofit that provides

alternative living for abused women and children in an attempt to break

the cycle of domestic violence.

Human Options executive director Vivian Clecak will be on hand along

with dermatologist Cary Feibleman. For more information, call

1-866-4MYSKIN. Now there’s a number you won’t forget.

* * *

Orange Coast College can be very proud. A recent Saturday evening

black tie fund-raiser called “OCC’s Gala 2000” brought the college close

to the halfway mark of its $2 million fund-raising goal to create an arts

pavilion.

Nearly 400 distinguished local guests added to the glamour and the

bottom line, raising $50,000 from the dinner event alone. Major donor

support has also come from local businesses, including Union Bank of

California, Mazda North America, PacifiCare Foundation and Pepsi, to name

a few.

Individual benefactors deserving kudos are Martha Newkirk and John and

Mary Lynn Bergman Rallis. Additionally, the OCC Associated Students

pledged $320,000 to the project, which will open in the fall of 2002,

funded entirely by private donations.

* * *

Organizers of the opening to celebrate the Peter and Mary Muth

Interpretive Center at the Upper Newport Back Bay report that the event

was the reason for the “tears of joy” seen on many of the faces in

attendance.

“Years of hard work and dedication to a dream of preservation and

education finally culminated on a beautiful star-studded evening under

the full moon at Back Bay,” said Penny Elia, spokeswoman for the new

center.

Guests from all over Orange County converged on the site Oct. 12 for a

grand opening catered by The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel. In the crowd,

were honored guests Mary and Peter Muth, Supervisor Tom Wilson and his

wife, Nancy, Bob Shelton, Jim and Nikki Wood, Ray Williams, Jeff Horn,

Richard Kent, Ray and Elsa Watson, Buck Johns, Jack Keating, Mayor John

Noyes, Dory and Dottie Koll, Mary Ann Towersey, Janet and Hunt Holladay

and Dave Kiff.

* * *

BMWs and mega wardrobe shopping sprees were just a couple of the

incredible auction items up for bid Saturday evening at the Cattle

Baron’s Ball benefiting the American Cancer Society.

The massive event staged at the Newport Dunes Resort, dubbed “Cactus

on the Coast,” attracted more than a thousand local patrons to the

western-themed gala chaired by Leslie Bowlus and Sandi Jackson.

PacifiCare was the title sponsor underwriter for the party, with

additional support coming from a diverse cross-section of community

involvement, all dedicated to the eradication of cancer.

Kent and Carol Wilken, Sally and Edward Crockett, Jim and Kay Burra,

Bill Gillespie, Ed and Sandi Laird, the Samueli family, William and

Lorraine McCune, Barbara Steinberg, the Horowitz brothers, the Koon

family, George and Audrey Rauch, Mary Kay and Louis Vandermolen, Warren

Lortie, Tom Suddes, Eve Kornyei, and so many more generous folks all came

out to support the search for the cure.

* THE CROWD appears Thursdays and Saturdays.