“Mentorship is one of the single most important gifts you can give to youth, especially those facing adversity,” says Melissa Beck, chief executive of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County.
That’s why the organization created the Beyond School Walls program. Orange County executives are matched with Orange County students facing adversity, exposing them to professional environments. Newport Beach-based Pacific Investment Management Co. is one of the program’s biggest supporters, with 40 matches.
The company’s Feb. 20 Beyond School Walls session featured an arts awareness workshop through Segerstrom Center for the Arts. The Chameleons, a mime group, explored how to use the body to express imagination, and students and their mentors acted out scenes, such as “mime in a box.”
Longtime Pacific Symphony board member James Emmi and his wife, Catherine, donated $2 million to the organization.
The gift was announced during a dinner honoring the symphony’s Crystal Society and recognizing more than 30 families, foundations and corporations that have been major contributors to programs and endowment-building efforts.
Emmi, retired president of Kimberly Development Co., has served on the symphony’s board of directors for 23 years. His wife is a leader in the Symphony League and Symphony 100, and she is a member of the ARCS Foundation board of trustees.
“Pacific Symphony is a young orchestra, and it must build its endowment to ensure its ability to serve the next generation of music lovers,” said Pacific Symphony President John Forsyte. “Jim and Catherine are visionary, in that they fully understand the importance of music and its impact on our community.”
The Alzheimer’s Association, Orange County held its annual gala on March 1 at the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach. The Creating Hope event, presented by the Argyros Family Foundation, drew more than 300 guests and raised more than $525,000. That included a $250,000 gift from Orange County philanthropists Karl and Tina Weber.
An awards ceremony recognized honorees for their work with the association in 2013. The evening closed with the Club Hope concert, an hour-long performance by American Idol Season 5 winner Taylor Hicks.
Gala sponsors included the Anaheim Ducks, Alaska Airlines, Assured In-Home Care, Irvine Cottages, First American Trust, Farmers and Merchants Trust Co., and The Resort at Pelican Hill.
Huntington Beach-based Star Real Estate is going to the prom—in a manner of speaking. The 300-agent firm has collected and donated more than 200 dresses, more than 50 pairs of shoes, and numerous purses, accessories, and jewelry to the Orangewood Children’s Foundation Belle of the Ball event.
The annual event gives 350 at-risk teen girls the opportunity to be a “Belle of the Ball.” Girls select gently worn “dream” dresses and coordinating accessories and shoes for their proms, plus lessons on applying makeup and tips on personal styling. Belle of the Ball, which is in its seventh year, is a collaboration between Orangewood Children’s Foundation, Girls Inc., Orange Coast College and Women Helping Women.
Oree, a former foster youth, attended the 2013 Belle event.
“I tried on nine different dresses,” she said. “It felt good to have choices. In foster care, we don’t get many choices.” At the prom, she said she felt like the “queen of the room.”
Seal Beach-based Affliction Clothing designed T-shirts to help raise money for construction of a memorial to honor victims of the October 2011 Salon Meritage shooting. It will sell two designs in its Seal Beach store, one featuring the American flag, the other a heart. … Cause, an Orange County-based charitable giving corporation, chose Newport Beach as its corporate headquarters. “Our Newport Beach location connects us with a strong and very motivated philanthropic community … one that is capable of setting the standard for businesses,” said Brian Kelly, the organization’s vice president. Cause developed a payment method that contributes a percentage of transactions to a merchant company’s charity or school of choice.
