A dedicated group of moms get ready for Halloween

LOLITA HARPER

Brigitte Tehranchi patted her son’s sweaty little head and wiped the

hair out of his face on Wednesday afternoon while visiting him at

Newport Coast Child Development Center. His arms were wrapped around

her right leg, and he was looking up at her with wide eyes.

“Mommy,” 5-year-old Cyrus said, “I want to home. Can I go home?”

“I have some things to do right now, but I will be back at 2 p.m.

to pick you up, OK?” his mother said. “I love you.”

With that, she gave him a big smooch on the head and returned to

“the crew.”

In the courtyard of the preschool were the women of Newport Coast

Cares. An attractive group of 30-something mothers, they are

committed not only to raising their children well but to ensuring

that other children are taken care of.

Their goal: raise a “crazy amount” of money for the children of

Corazon de Vida -- a foundation that provides financial help to needy

children in Mexico who don’t have parents. (These women don’t call

them orphans. They are more than that. They are people.)

Their tool: The Newport Coast Cares Halloween Carnival, which

kicks off this weekend, with a haunted house tonight, Saturday and

Sunday and the big carnival from 1 to 7 p.m. Saturday. This is the

second year of the carnival.

On Wednesday, Tehranchi, Laura Giffin and their dedicated team of

volunteers had less than 48 hours to get all the final pieces in

place.

Five of the women met at the preschool Wednesday afternoon to sell

tickets at a little booth. There are two “rushes” of parents at the

school, the women said: at noon and at 2 p.m.

“We hit the noon people pretty hard,” Giffin said.

One mother wandered through the Newport Cares group with a

Superman lunch box in her hand. Little so-and-so had forgotten his

lunch, and she was headed back to drop it off.

“OK, roll out that checkbook,” one woman said, unleashing a flood

gate of sales pitches.

“Get your wallet out.”

“Get that check book out of that lunchbox.”

“You don’t have to go, just buy a ticket to support the cause.”

“It’s only $15.”

“Look at those faces,” Giffin said, pointing to a poster of the

children in Mexico.

The woman smiled and laughed and tried gracefully to decline. They

let her get by. They were just having fun with her. They chuckled for

a second and then put their game faces back on.

“OK, we are just up to here with a million things to do,” Karen

Jordan said.

And the game plan was set. Jordan and Pam Fortmuller would run to

Juliana Martini’s to help her with the silent auction. Tehranchi and

Giffin would run up to the Newport Coast Shopping Center, where the

carnival is being held, to make sure everything was on track.

Samantha Morin would tag along and then come back to man the ticket

booth.

“I just have to be back here by 2 p.m. to get Cyrus and get home

to the little one,” Tehranchi said. “I need to spend some time with

my kids.”

All the mothers nodded in agreement, each wanting to move things

along to get back to their families. Plus, husbands would be home in

the evening, so they were running out of daylight. Everybody have

their routes? Good.

Tehranchi, Giffin and Morin headed off to for the shopping center.

The local merchants have always been ultra-supportive of the carnival

and gladly gave up a large portion of the parking lot for the event.

This year, however, there was a wrinkle. Pickets at Pavilions.

“We just want to make sure there is a clear understanding that

there are not any issues and that we will all just get along,” Giffin

said.

“They are so sweet, I doubt it will be a problem,” Tehranchi said.

“Why don’t we take them doughnuts or cheesecake on Saturday,”

Morin said.

“Or tickets!” Tehranchi added.

“Yeah, I bet they would love the carnival,” Giffin said.

About seven minutes and two “orange” lights later, the crew

arrived at the front of their hometown grocery store, a store they

had not stepped foot in for 11 days. The pickets listened to the

women describe the event, the cause and the logistics and smiled.

“Oh, you don’t have to worry about us,” one man said.

“Do you need any help?” another asked.

Picket manager Debbie Wilson said she would be there Saturday to

make sure everything went off without a hitch. She hugged Giffin, one

of her regular customers, and told her all the employees were still

as supportive of the carnival as ever.

“We don’t want to be a nuisance to any of you guys,” Wilson said.

“We don’t want to hurt anybody. We just wish it would be over. We

want you guys to come back. We miss you.”

On the inside, manager Jeff Ruffulo echoed the pickets’

sentiments.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “It’s not a problem, I’m here to

help. We’ll get over, get through and get back to normal. We just

want you to come back when it’s all said and done.”

OK. Check that off the list. Now onto Martini’s house.

From Newport Coast to River Drive, another “orange” light was run.

“I am a woman on a mission,” Tehranchi said, chuckling at her

Mario Andreti-style driving.

Inside Juliana’s gorgeous Newport Beach home, Jordan and

Fortmuller were busy wrapping, organizing and cataloging the dozens

of donated silent auction items. Gift certificates from T.G.I.

Friday’s restaurant, spa treatments, Gucci bags, a Kate Daniels

jacket, candle sticks, toys and much, much more were strewn over two

display tables, the couch, loveseat, side chair and entry way.

Giffin and Tehranchi rifled through some of it.

“Ohmigosh,” Giffin said, “We got the feng shui guy again. Gosh, I

remember when he came to my house last year.”

“Yeah, move this, rearrange this, this is not a money-making

design,” Jordan added, in her best impression.

Laughter filled the room. Then Martini walked in with her infant

daughter in tow.

“Hi guys,” she said, out of breath, while taking a baby bag from

around her neck and applying the wheel locks on the stroller. “We

just got back from music class. How is everything?”

Four excited voices answered her, each talking a mile-a-minute.

“Good to hear,” Martini said, picking her daughter up out of the

seat.

She propped her on her hip and went over the inventory with her

partners in crime. Martini ushered them into her kitchen-slash-office

to show the women the auction forms she designed.

“Where are they?” she asked herself, picking up a pink baby

blanket from on top a pile of papers on the counter. “Ah, here.”

The women rattled off some numbers, OK’d the design and reviewed

their assignments and said their good-byes.

“I am sorry you guys, I just need to get home,” Giffin said.

Fine go, go, the others said and shooed her out the door.

“See you all tomorrow,” Giffin and Tehranchi said while walking

out the door.

More of the same for the women of Newport Coast Cares. A dedicated

group of well-to-do women who are doing great things for others.

* LOLITA HARPER writes columns Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and

covers culture and the arts. She may be reached at (949) 574-4275 or

by e-mail at lolita.harper@latimes.com.