Brent McMahon hopes to raise $100,000 for Children’s Hospital of Orange County in next few weeks.
McMahon, owner of McMahon RV in Irvine and Riverside-based Eclipse RV, is selling $1 raffle tickets for a chance to win one of his $19,000 Milan travel trailers.
Tickets are being sold at RV shows and at McMahon’s stores in Irvine, Colton and Palm Desert. The company has other stores in Arizona and is opening one in Northern California next year.
The trailer will be raffled Oct. 23 at the California RV Show.
This is not McMahon’s first donation to CHOC.
Last December, before a hockey game at the Honda Center, McMahon pledged to give up to $100,000 to CHOC, based on sales of his RVs.
McMahon first came to know CHOC a while ago through a former roommate whose child was being treated at the hospital. McMahon learned more about the hospital after one of his own children was born prematurely.
“I’ve been very familiar with CHOC and the great work that they do for many years,” he says.
McMahon RV began donating to CHOC under a unique set of circumstances involving teen heartthrob Taylor Lautner, who plays a werewolf named Jacob Black in The Twilight Saga.
The connection didn’t start well—McMahon RV sold a $300,000 trailer to Lautner and faced a $40,000 lawsuit when it was wasn’t delivered on time.
The suit was settled and Lautner reportedly donated the money to The Lollipop Theater Network in Los Angeles, which brings current movies to children’s hospitals.
“We wanted the money to go to CHOC,” McMahon says. “But the group we settled with wanted the donation to go to another charity.”
As a result, McMahon made his first $100,000 pledge to CHOC, separate from the raffle fundraiser. “A lot of good came from the whole process,” he says.
McMahon also donates to the Rancho Mirage-based Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center, which helps abused children.
Real estate developer John Markley and his wife, Janice, have come up with a way to turn their love of wine into a way to do good.
The couple is planning a wine-tasting fundraiser to help Markley’s favorite charity, The Wooden Floor in Santa Ana.
The Wooden Floor is an after-school dance program coupled with college prep for poor kids. Since 2005, 100% of The Wooden Floor graduates have completed high school on time and enrolled in college.
The fundraiser, called Keep the Promise, will be held in Newport Beach (contact The Wooden Floor for the exact location) on Oct. 6. Tickets are $250 per person, $150 of which is tax deductible.
Sponsors of the event include Joan and Don Beall; The Capital Group Companies, which has a significant operation in Irvine; Rich and Ginnie Hunsaker; Credit Suisse Foundation; Calabasas-based Ezralow Co., Jan and Frank Foster; Frome Family Foundation; Sharon and Terry Hartshorn; Peter G. Welsh of Newmark Realty Capital Inc.’s Irvine office; Trish and John O’Donnell; Newport Beach-based Orange Coast magazine; the Nancy and Geoffrey Stack Family Foundation; San Francisco-based Union Bank; Glennda Adair; Santa Ana-based Corinthian Colleges Inc.; Honda Center/Anaheim Ducks; Anthony and Connie Seiffert; Irvine-based Sidles Duncan & Associates; the Thompson Foundation; Barbara and Bill Yingling; and Nancy and Arn Youngman.
Orange Coast magazine’s 4th Annual Orange Coast OC Look Party raised $18,000 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Orange County chapter in Irvine.
The fashion-focused fundraiser was held at the home of Maureen and Daniel Callahan in Ritz Cove in the Monarch Beach area.
The event honored “arbiters of fashion.” The trio of spiffy dressers includes local artist Timree Gold, Lasik eye surgeon Gregg Feinerman and restaurateur Antonio Cagnolo.
Santa Ana-based Taller San Jose’s recent 15th Annual Light up a Life Gala raised about $500,000.
Taller San Jose offers hands-on job training programs in construction, medical and office careers to individuals aged 18 to 28, many of whom are unemployed. Nearly 60% of the men enrolled in the program are on probation or parole.
Bruce Hamlin, owner of Guaranty Chevrolet of Santa Ana, received a “Best of Friends” award at the gala.
This year, the dealership donated a 2012 Chevy Volt as a raffle prize. Hamlin’s dealership has donated cars to the organization for nearly a decade.
Hamlin also has hired Taller San Jose graduates, provided scholarships and served on the organization’s board.
Event sponsors included Orange-based St. Joseph Health System, Santa Ana-based DGWB Advertising & Communications, Clark Construction Group LLC’s Costa Mesa office and Orange-based The Turnip Rose Elite Catering.
Tustin’s Roma D’ Italia, owned by the Dominic Corea family, recently celebrated 50 years in business by volunteering at the Smeda Soup Kitchen in downtown Santa Ana … Santa Ana-based Women Helping Women/Men2Work is holding its quarterly Saturday sale Oct. 30 to raise money for its mission of helping low-income men and women dress for work and find jobs.
