HONORED --- Emmy Award winning actress and "Big Sister" Patricia Heaton was honored by Catholic Big Brothers Big Sisters (CBBBS) at the Champions for Youth black tie celebration at the Fairmont Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica June 2. Carmen Vargas, Patricia Heaton's "Little Sister" of 20 years, also was honored. Pictured from left are Bob Madok (board chair), Stan Chambers (emcee), Carmen Vargas, Patricia Heaton, and Ken Martinet (CEO).
Immaculate Heart Community honors outstanding service
The Immaculate Heart Community recently honored three women who have given outstanding service to the Community for many years. Carola Edwards, Christine Foster and Midge Russell were presented with the first annual Mary Award at the Cathedral Center at a brunch following the group's attendance at the 10 a.m. Mass May 20.
Edwards, president of the Immaculate Heart College Alumnae Association, also is a member of the IHM Development Committee which she says provides her the opportunity "to help the IHMs, a Community which I believe has a great future as they have such warmth and love." At the close of the Immaculate Heart College Center, she put together the alumnae list into a reliable database.
Edwards works as a senior programmer for the Rand Institute, a public policy non-profit research firm.
Hunter, who worked in the competitive television business for three decades, also served on the Board of Trustees of Immaculate Heart High School in Los Angeles for nearly 30 years and recently joined the Development Committee for the Community.
She wrote --- pro bono --- the centennial book on the history of the IHHS. The 232-page volume covers the period from 1906 to 2006 and combines illustrative history, alumnae memories and a complete list of all the graduates. "This has been a labor of love," she states, "not an official class term paper."
Frances "Midge" Swain Russell started a Friends Group for IHM members in residence. The group has provided a variety of experiences --- trips to the ocean, museum exhibits, restaurant dinners --- as well as financial support for the maintenance and improvement of the IHM Residence.
"There is a list of some 150 women who contribute," she noted, "even if they are unable to come to the residence, I can call on them."
IN APPRECIATION --- Pictured from left are Midge Russell, Helen Kelley IHM, Carola Edwards, Christine Foster Hunter, Rosalina Baldonado IHM, and seated in front is Anita Caspary IHM.
St. Joseph Center celebrates
The St. Joseph Center 22nd annual Dinner Dance held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in downtown Los Angeles June 2 attracted a sellout crowd and raised more than half a million dollars. The funds will help the center provide vital services for low-income and homeless families and individuals in Venice and Santa Monica.
Television star and longtime St. Joseph Center supporter Wendie Malick hosted the event. Honorees included Steven M. Hilton, president of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and St. Joseph Center board member, who received the Hope Through Empowerment award; UCLA's Anderson School of Management (represented by Dean Judy Olian along with Professors Kevin McCardle and Steven Lippman), recipient of the Community Service Award for the work of its faculty and staff as volunteers and on St. Joseph Center's Planting Hope, Growing Lives capital campaign; and Raymond Middleton, who received the agency's Special Recognition Award. By working with St. Joseph Center's Homeless Service Center, Middleton has gone from living in his car to renting his own apartment and providing a home for his mother and seven-year old son.
Father Tony Gonzales, pastor of St. Clement Church in Venice, delivered the invocation. St. Clement has hosted St. Joseph Center's family programs and administrative offices for two decades and is where the center's new facility is currently under construction.
INVOCATION --- Fr. Tony Gonzales delivers the invocation for the St. Joseph Center Dinner Dance. The center provides child care, job training and supplemental groceries to 6,500 working poor and homeless families and individuals on the Westside. |