Miracles for Kids' Moroccan bash nets an impressive $505,000
Talk about a warmhearted evening! When you have a five-year-old CHOC cancer patient dancing with belly dancers at the Moroccan-themed Miracles for Kids benefit Saturday night at the St. Regis Resort in Dana Point, you know why you're there. Zoe Hunter lights up a room with her 100-watt smile and when she's learning to belly dance, she's downright magical.
The "Miracles in Morocco" fundraiser, the non-profit's eighth annual Night of Miracles, drew a packed crowd of 497 guests to raise funds for CHOC Children's hospital of Orange County and the Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation. The fun-loving crowd enjoyed a spirited cocktail reception, which featured pomegranate martinis and a 125-item silent auction - including an amazing wine auction - as well as a chance to purchase opportunity prize tickets to win a pair of Lugano Diamonds 2.92 cts. diamond drop earrings valued at $10,500. With just buying a $100 ticket, you received a pair of black pearl studs! The other opportunity prize was a $2,950 Curtis & Co. Men's Big Time Tour Special Edition watch.
The opening of the ballroom doors for dinner featured the Naked Rhythm band performing authentic Moroccan music with a cadre of belly dancers lining the dance floor. Dinner was served on rectangular tables covered in black linens and lined with a striking pin-lit display of grapefruits, pomegranates, lemons, grapes, eggplants, red roses, and pale green hydrangeas. The well-crafted dinner featured a trio of tasty hummuses and mixed olives with the accompanying flatbread, pita bread and assorted Lavash as well as a very delicious entrée duo of grilled chicken breast with chermoula spices, Merguez sausage and slow-baked barramundi bass with couscous.
Miracles for Kids founder board chairman Curtis Green welcomed the party goers and thanked what he described as his dynamic board of directors. Asking them to stand, he introduced Paula Ansara-Wilhelm, DJ Burke, Kenneth Gerdau, Azmin Ghahreman, David Heil, Michael Meyer, Kevin O'Connell, Peter Quill, and Tom Swanecamp. Green also lauded the charity's executive director and event chair Autumn Strier for her untiring efforts for the non-profit.
Miracles for Kids, Green's brainchild, was actually launched in 1998 as The Breeze Fund, an internal fundraising effort of his company, Sea Breeze Financial Services, whereby the employees donated money through automatic payroll deductions to benefit PCRF and Green matched the donations. "I was inspired to get involved when my best friend's daughter was diagnosed with leukemia," Green said, "and when, on my 40th birthday, we decided to make it a fundraiser, Miracle for Kids was born." That was 2001 and since then, the thrust has been to improve the lives of children with cancer and other life-threatening diseases by providing their families with financial support, serving as an advocate for the children and their families and providing funds to non-profits and other entities that support or conduct research focused on eradicating life-threatening childhood diseases. "We help an average of 80 families a year," Green said, "and in the new CHOC tower, Miracles for Kids was the first to fund something, in this case, a living room, for the families to get together while the kids are receiving treatment."
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