B.W. COOK -- The Crowd
Community treasure Merle Hatleberg, founder of Someone Cares Soup
Kitchen, was overjoyed at the massive turnout for the ninth annual Summer
Solstice: A Festival of Fine Food and Wine. More than 1,200 people
attended the benefit for the kitchen and Second Harvest Food Bank of
Orange County, a private nonprofit organization that distributes food to
those in need.
Hatleberg has been at the forefront of the community hunger issue for
a long time. Someone Cares Soup Kitchen in Costa Mesa, run by Hatleberg
and a staff of dedicated and caring local citizens, is a member of a
network of some 300 local charities devoted to providing food for the
hungry in Orange County. Hatleberg’s kitchen alone serves more than 250
men, women and children each and every day of the year.
Summer Solstice has been a long-standing pet charity of Anton
Segerstrom and South Coast Plaza. The junior Segerstrom offers his full
support to Hatleberg and rallies his considerable resources to ensure the
success of the fine food and wine evening that transforms three levels of
the former Crystal Court into nothing short of a spectacular American
summer street fair.
Many local restaurants pull out all the stops to serve the crowd a
delicious taste of Orange County. The wine flows. Desserts are
beautifully and bountifully displayed, old friends meet new and,
ultimately, a handsome check is turned over to the Second Harvest Food
Bank.
This year, close to $40,000 was raised to help feed people not
fortunate enough to attend such a festival. While there are some who find
the concept of a wine and food feast designed to raise funds to feed the
hungry somewhat ironic, there are countless more who simply look to the
bottom line. To paraphrase the philosophy of Hatleberg, the important
thing is to feed the people. And that is all that matters.
* * *
Orangewood Pals, another fine organization providing assistance, love
and support for children coming from abused situations, is planning its
upcoming summer fund-raiser at Josh Slocum’s in Newport Beach. That’s
right, the former Minney establishment on the bay, now under the wing of
our very own Dennis Rodman, will be the site Wednesday for the Orangewood
Pals mixer.
The local crowd reports that Rodman’s establishment has excellent
food, and the party atmosphere is a new place on the coast to see and be
seen. Now I have to qualify this a bit, adding that the rave reviews are
coming from the decidedly younger crowd, of which I confess, I am not a
member.
The donation for the Orangewood event is $20 and goes directly to the
cause. Slocum’s, in association with organizers, will provide appetizers,
music and valet parking. The tattooed tall guy reports that he will be on
hand for the evening.
Reservations are required. Call the Pals hotline at (714) 741-9368 for reservations and or information.
* * *
The Big Canyon residence of Mr. and Mrs. Oliver Green was the handsome
setting for a Sunday evening reception celebrating Ballet Pacifica’s
Choreographic Project for 2001. Over the past decade, this distinguished
local dance company has sponsored an innovative yearly event designed to
provide an artistic forum for choreographers to create and to display
dance works-in-progress.
Here’s how it works. Ballet Pacifica, over a period of three weeks in
July, supplies selected choreographers with both the space and the
dancers needed for the artist to “stretch the limits of dance and
themselves in a noncompetitive environment.” This season the company is
working with Susan Hadley, Jacques Heim, Manard Stewart and Dominic
Walsh.
These four talented choreographers join a roster of 36 American
artists who have, over the years, worked with Ballet Pacifica -- taking
18 original pieces into repertory performance.
This year’s showing will take place July 28 on the Mainstage at South
Coast Repertory Theater in Costa Mesa.
* THE CROWD appears Thursdays and Saturdays.
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