Ariel’s Circle gets a new chapter in OC

In an emotionally charged presentation, leaders of the L.A.-based

Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundations came to Costa Mesa to

inform, inspire and rally the support of Orange County activists in

the fight against HIV and AIDS in children.

Elizabeth Glaser, the wife of actor Paul Michael Glaser,

contracted AIDS from a blood transfusion in the early years of the

appearance of the disease, before medical knowledge was able to

protect the blood supply.

Glaser and her infant daughter Ariel both died from complications

of AIDS. Their passing helped to rally people around a national fight

against the disease, which many people at the time erroneously

assumed did not affect women and children.

The foundation, formed in 1989, has been a groundbreaking,

grass-roots community effort to protect infants and children and to

reduce and prevent HIV transmission from mother to child. Further,

the foundation has pushed for the discovery of new treatments, for

not only HIV but for other life-threatening pediatric diseases.

Organizers have named a donor foundation “Ariel’s Circle” in honor

of Elizabeth Glaser’s child, who had no chance in life.

Orange Coast social activists Teddie and Michael Ray invited

friends to initiate a chapter of Ariel’s Circle in Orange County. The

chapter was inaugurated with a reception at Pinot Provence, Costa

Mesa.

More than 100 guests from Newport-Mesa and beyond gathered in the

restaurant for a midweek cocktail reception that was very much to the

point. This was not just another social gathering at holiday time,

but a very serious meeting of the minds and the hearts to raise money

for Ariel’s Circle, with supporters asked to make an annual pledge of

$1,000 or more.

The Orange County inauguration was timed to coincide with the

anniversary of Elizabeth Glaser’s death.

Her closest friends have championed her foundation, claiming it

sprung from the kitchen table when they had no idea what Elizabeth

faced more than 15 years ago. The women and their associates have

turned what began at the Glaser kitchen table into an international

program through one-on-one grass-roots connections to scientists,

politicians, business leaders, charitable organizations and people in

communities such as Newport-Mesa.

Teddie and Michael Ray joined Lido Isle’s prominent couple Martin

and Elaine Weinberg, and Orange County’s high-profile leader of the

California Bar Assn., Wylie Aitken, and his wife, Bette, to host the

Pinot Provence reception, which attracted a cross-section of Orange

County.

Major support for the inauguration of Ariel’s Circle in Orange

County came from South Coast Plaza’s Sandy Segerstrom and John

Daniels. William Thomas, regional executive with Mikimoto and

Company, also put his formidable support and that of Mikimoto behind

the cause, helping to underwrite the gathering. Comerica Bank,

represented by David Rahn, also went the extra mile to support the

important foundation inauguration.

“We are proud to work in association with the Elizabeth Glaser

Pediatric AIDS Foundation in meeting the challenge of AIDS,” Rahn

said. “The involvement of the Orange County community in this fight

has and will make a difference.”

For more information on Ariel’s Circle and The Elizabeth Glaser

Pediatric AIDS Foundation, call (310) 314-1459 or check out

www.pedAIDS.org.