The Crowd: Noble Vikings raise $45,000 for holiday baskets
Looking back at Los Angeles circa 1960, it was quite a different world. The real era of the so-called “Mad Men” was in full throttle, and the watering hole of choice was Scandia, a swank dining room on the western end of the Sunset Strip.
Ken Hansen, a restaurateur of considerable fame, was the arbiter of record. Out of his legendary success was born a gents charity they called the Noble Viking Charities.
Fast forward a couple of decades. Hansen’s protégé, Hans Prager, would open his own version of Scandia in Newport Beach, this time called The Ritz. It was born in 1984 and the grand dining tradition would evolve on the coast.
Prager also carried forth the charitable purpose of the Noble Vikings by rallying many of O.C.’s prominent gents to support the effort.
Thirty-two years forward, the old Ritz is gone — as is Scandia in L.A. — but the Vikings live on. Recently, the gents and their wives, business partners, friends and associates came together for the annual summer bash, a once-a-year confab that produces significant results for local families and their children at holiday time. In uniquely American terms, it was people helping people they will never know and people helped who will never know their benefactors.
The goal of the Noble Vikings is to raise funds that will buy food and more to be placed in large holiday baskets for distribution at year’s end. Each holiday season, more than 1,200 such gift baskets are prepared by Noble Viking volunteers and then distributed throughout Orange County. The gents work with a number of O.C. organizations to accomplish their goals, including local Boys and Girls Clubs, Civic Center Barrio Housing Corp., Creer Comunidad y Familia, Father Serra’s Food Pantry, Homefront America, Latino Health Access, Pio Pico Elementary School and the Saint Michael’s Society.
This year’s summer bash was led by Viking Chief Sam DiAmico and was held at the tony Island Hotel in Newport Beach. An impressive $45,000 was raised in support of the holiday basket effort.
Underwritten by local Viking Bret Hardin, the party was emceed by local entertainer Jim Roberts, who welcomed the generous donors, including Rosemary Concilio, Teri Hausman, Frank DiBella, Mike Knapp, Wayne and Sherry Smith, Steve and Michelle Holbert, Kristilyn Goff and John Postma, Charlene Prager, and Henry and Carol Schielein.
Also front and center were Dr. Michael and Penny Niccole, Sonny and Diane Jensen, luxury homebuilder Andrew Miner, John and Wendy Pitchess, Mike Russell, and Tom and Kathy Madigan. Major sponsorship underwriting also came from Simple Green/Sunshine Makers, Inc., the Bianchi winery, Hausman Family Foundation, Fleming’s restaurants, and Aleks and Stacy Renshaw.
To learn more about the work of Noble Viking Charities, visit noblevikings.org.
B.W. COOK is editor of the Bay Window, the official publication of the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach.
