Compiled by Julie Anne Ines
Benders Give $1M to Mission Hospital
Tom and Pamela Bender donated $1 million to Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo to support renovations. Tom Bender is chairman and chief executive of Lake Forest-based Cooper Cos., a maker of contact lenses and women’s surgical equipment. The hospital’s expansion plan includes adding 64 beds to the 317-bed facility and building more than 265,000 square feet of hospital and medical office space. The space is set to include a four-story patient tower and chapel, expansion of the emergency room and Gotschall Family Trauma Pavilion, a five-story medical office building and a 1,500-space parking structure.
HomeAid is building a family center in New Orleans to help with rebuilding efforts after Hurricane Katrina. HomeAid partnered with Tulane University’s School of Architecture for the project: a 4,400-square-foot, two-story family center that will house families who were displaced by the hurricane. HomeAid and Ameriquest Mortgage Co., Argent Mortgage Co. and AMC Mortgage Services raised $3 million to fund the project. In addition, Beazer Homes USA Inc.’s Houston office is sending 30 framers to help speed up building of the center.
The 45th annual Roy Emerson Adoption Guild Tennis Classic, sponsored by the Adoption Guild of Southern Orange County, raised $94,110 to help foster children in South OC. Corporate sponsors included Fletcher Jones Motor Cars of Newport Beach, which contributed $33,000 in cash and merchandise. William Harold Jewelers of Newport Beach provided a three-quarters carat diamond as a raffle prize. All proceeds went to Holy Family Services Adoption and Foster Care Agency.
Orange-based Providence Speech and Hearing Center’s 22nd annual Golf Classic, sponsored by Word & Brown Cos. and Merrill Lynch Umphrey/Koby Group, raised $75,000. The event took place at the Newport Beach Country Club and raised more money than all past tournaments. The money will go to the center, which provides diagnostic and treatment services for more than 11,000 people.
Thomas P. Cox Architects Inc. and Habitat for Humanity Orange County raised $60,000 at its annual golf tournament fund-raiser. The money raised will go toward Habitat for Humanity’s efforts to build affordable housing for families in OC. During its nine-year partnership with Habitat for Humanity, the architectural firm has helped raise more than $300,000.
A total of $4.2 million in pocket change was raised for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society during Olive Garden’s 12th annual Pasta for Pennies program. Students from Orange County and the Inland Empire raised $261,237 of the total. Orange High School raised $42,539, Serrano Intermediate School in Lake Forest raised $15,000 and Brea Junior High School raised $7,214. Students were recognized during a segment on the “Tony Danza Show.” The Pasta for Pennies program required students to bring in spare change to their classrooms. The class that collected the most funds in each school received a pasta party from a local Olive Garden restaurant.
The Building Owners and Managers Association of Orange County increased its support of the Builders Owners and Managers Association Energy Efficiency Program by contributing $10,000 to the program’s educational seminars. The program offers energy saving tips through a series of Web-based seminars.
The Sixth Annual Invitational CoreNet Golf Tournament hosted by the Southern California chapter of CoreNet Global raised $10,000 for Habitat for Humanity International. The event was the first fund-raiser for CoreNet in the 2006-07 period. Participants spent the afternoon playing golf at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort & Spa’s Monarch Beach Golf Links in Dana Point.
The Wells Fargo Foundation, the charitable arm of Wells Fargo & Co., donated $7,000 to Santa Ana-based Web Wise Kids, a group that offers programs on Internet safety for children and adults. The grant will go toward providing education for OC students. It will allow Web Wise to distribute its Missing game to 45 local schools and provide two Internet safety training workshops for teachers.
The Sundried Tomato restaurant in Laguna Beach raised $6,225 for the Laguna College of Art & Design at a benefit dinner that marked the restaurant’s five-year anniversary. The donation is one of the first that has gone toward the college’s Founders Scholarship Fund, which will fund need-based scholarships and related programs.
