THE LAST WORD

Great communities host great fund-raisers. And Newport-Mesa proved

itself charitable last weekend through the CHOC Follies and Relay for

Life.

With the CHOC Follies, executive producer Gloria Zigner and company

netted about $400,000 for the Children’s Hospital of Orange County. In

its sixth year, the production made its Costa Mesa debut over three days

in a tent adjacent to the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

The first-ever Relay for Life in Newport Beach, meanwhile, raised

close to $70,000 for the American Cancer Society. Peggy Fort, Pat Smith

and Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau helped launch the 24-hour

run/walk at Newport Harbor High School.

With events like these in difficult economic times like these,

nonprofit organizations can be reassured they have friends who will

support them and their needs.

We’re pleased to see both of these events do so well on the same

weekend and we encourage them to continue their efforts a year from now

in Newport-Mesa. It’s great work that certainly doesn’t go unnoticed.