Our Laguna: Susi Q celebrates its first holiday luncheon

Laguna Beach Seniors Inc. celebrated its first year — almost — in the Susi Q on Monday.

The traditional holiday luncheon at Tivoli Terrace brought together members, the board, volunteers, staff and supporters for a festive repast and rejoicing.

“Just about everyone here has coattails,” said seniors President Chris Quilter.

Not the least of which are monogrammed with a Q.

The center is named for the late Elizabeth Quilter, a newspaper woman — not a “journalist” — of the old school. She wrote a column for the Coastline using the pen name Susi Q. To her family, Liz was Gr’Ma Whiz. And a whiz she was.

Her four sons — Chris, Matthew, Pat and Charles — donated $750,000 in her name toward the construction of what many in town felt was the long-overdue center for seniors. Charlie’s wife, Ann, served as co-chairwoman with Darrcy Loveland Bickel of the capital campaign to raise the rest of the needed funds.

Susi Q Executive Director Bea Fields welcomed the luncheon crowd and looked back on the months since the center opened in February with wonder.

“I think it has been a great success because we have a wonderful staff, wonderful supporters, wonderful volunteers, a wonderful city and most of all because of you all who come to our wonderful programs,” Fields said. “And I think the next year will be even better — you hear that, Marianne?”

Marianne Tracy organizes the programs at the center, which include Debbie Neville’s flower arranging class; beginning knitting, taught by instructors from Strands & Stitches; social bridge 11:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays; drop-in ping pong from 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays; Mahjong from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. Wednesdays; bingo from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursdays; free movies and popcorn 1 to 3 p.m. Mondays; ballroom dancing from 2 to 3 p.m. Mondays, and for a small — very small — fee a computer lab from 1 to 3 p.m. Wednesdays and Fridays.

And Tracy has some special programs coming early in the New Year, including free tax advice from February through April 15.

Fields turned the microphone over to Bree Burgess Rosen, who has made an a cappella rendition of the “Star Spangled Banner,” her signature song. This year, she asked the crowd to join her.

Burgess Rosen has close ties to the Susi Q. Chris Quilter co-authors “Lagunatics” with her and one of the first fundraisers for the center was “Lagunatics — Senior Prom.” Burgess Rosen also presented a wine tasting at the center — she is a certified sommelier.

But the crowd at the luncheon was studded with leaders who helped make the Susi Q a reality, including past President Virginia Schott.

“She was our pioneering president,” Quilter said. “She knows where all the bodies are buried and she’s very nice about not telling anyone.”

Past Presidents Skipper Lynn, Pauline Walpin, Louise Buckley and Chris Quilter’s predecessor, Lee Anderson, were among the VIPS Chris Quilter introduced.

“I haven’t seen him since he left office and now he looks like the coolest dude in town,” Chris Quilter said. “I am the weak link, but with that sole exception, you [members] have made great decisions.”

The Susi Q Board of Directors includes Pam Horowitz, Rick Davis, Jim McBride, Ann Q, Montage Resort and Spa’s Carol Reynolds (there are three in town, although one spells Carol with an e), Stuart Wilson, Tina Haines, Buckley and Loveland Bickel.

Chris Quilter also recognized Mayor Elizabeth Pearson, a driving force behind the Susi Q to which she has bequeathed her estate, Mayor Pro Tem Toni Iseman, council members Kelly Boyd and Verna Rollinger, Assistant City Manager John Pietig, South County Senior Services Chief Executive Marilyn Ditty, City Director of Community Services Susan Cannan and the city’s center coordinator Patty Koss.

“A special award is being prepared for all the people I have forgotten,” Quilter said. “I am a man of few words” and that was as far as he got until laughter — from snorts to guffaws — broke out.

Quilter is a wordsmith of which his mother could be proud.

Entertainment was provided by the Thurston Middle School Chorus and the Laguna Beach High School girls singing group, the Heartbreakers, both under the direction of Roxanna Ward. The full 60-member high school choral class just couldn’t be crammed into the space reserved for performers.

The 28 singers from Thurston opened with a new composition: “Welcome Winter Winds, written just last week, Ward said. Seventh- grader Hannah Gallego and sixth-grader Kobe Hinderson soloed. The chorus then performed “Steam Heat” from “Pajama Game,” followed by “Ding Dong, Ring Dem Bells. ”

High school senior and former Burgess Rosen student Sophia Tupy soloed as the Mother Superior in the opening number from “The Sound of Music.” Clara La Rose and Chandler and Sarah Davis also soloed.

“That’s a tough act to follow,” Burgess Rosen said, before bringing tears to the eyes of many in the audience singing “Oh Holy Night,” accompanied by Ward, including the second verse, which nobody ever performs.

Luncheon Co-Chairs Johnson and Buckley announced the winners of door and opportunity prizes donated by generous businesses and services from A to Z: Albertsons Market, the Art of Fitness and Spa, Attentive Home Care, Coast Hardware, Cottage Restaurant, Doctor’s Ambulance, Five Crowns restaurant, George Nelson of Fawn Memories, Beverly Hines, Inn at Laguna, La Sirena Grill, Laguna Drugs, Laguna Handbags, Laguna Playhouse, Latitude 33 Bookstore, Madison Square and Garden Café, Pacific Edge Hotel, Pomodoro Restaurant, Ralph’s Market, 230 Forest Avenue, Waste Management (which donated five gift boxes with chocolates and gift certificates to Subway), the White House, Whole Foods and Carole Zavala.

The center encourages residents to patronize local merchants who contributed to the success of the luncheon.

Winners included Pat Chaplin of the centers Intrepid Travelers group, Laura Holty, Dorothy Collins, Kay Kearney from Doctor’s Ambulance, Rollinger, Tracy and Jane Greenwald, a member of Soroptimist International of Laguna Beach.

The Soroptimists, which recently presented the Susi Q with a check for $1,000, hosted a table at the luncheon, Tables were also hosted by Quilters C and A, and Buckley. Among those seated at Buckley’s table, Sande St. John.

“There are 118 people here today, but Sande will speak with at least 75 of them before she sits down,” Buckley said.

Among the 118: Andy and City Clerk Martha Anderson, city Treasurer Laura Parisi, former Mayor Cheryl Kinsman, Michelle Boyd, Mission Hospital Laguna Beach fundraiser Lisa Wood, Laiza Davis, Magda Herlicsha, Dwayne Bickel, Susan Wolter of the Susan G. Komen Beach Cancer Foundation and a Soroptimist, graphic designer Susan Reese and Penny King and Laguna Beach Community Clinic’s Dr. Korey Jorgeson, one of the many who sported jeweled Christmas Tree pins. His pin was a gift from his partner, Susi Q board member Wilson, who owns its twin.

Also: Realtor and Laguna Beach Woman’s Club President Gayle Waite, Anne Wood, Michelle Clark of Waste Management, Allen Doby, retired executive director of the Santa Ana Parks and Recreation Department, former seniors’ secretary and case manager supervisor Ruth Stafford and Susi Q volunteers Valerie Neidig, Vic Opincar and Susan Layman, whose late husband, Phil, flew with Charlie Q in the U.S. Marine Corps and commercially for Western and Delta air lines.

OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, 92652; call (949) 380-4321 or e-mail coastlinepilot@latimes.com.