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The Crowd: Piling up dollars to fight Duchenne

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Napa came to Newport in March, and $680,000 was raised at a wine dinner and auction benefiting young boys suffering from Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Some 350 donors converged in the ballroom of the Balboa Bay Resort for the lively evening, which presented attendees with a phenomenal wine tasting, including 29 of Napa Valley’s most desired wines.

The party was curated by Master Sommelier Michael Jordan. He is one of 15 people worldwide holding both the Master Sommelier honor and also certification as a Wine Educator.

Honorary co-chairs of the event were Chuck and Anne McMinn, owners of Vineyard 29, who joined Chef David Slay of Park Ave. Restaurant in creating a signature four-course menu for the party, incorporating perfect wine selections.

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The CureDuchenne charity was founded by Debra and Paul Miller, on hand to welcome guests and donors. Their son Hawken was diagnosed at age 5, in 2004. Paul Miller shared, “Doctors told us to go home and love him. There was nothing that could be done for boys with Duchenne.”

Debra Miller added, “We did love him. But we also planned an attack to hit this disease with everything we had. Today, the very first pharmaceutical treatment for Duchenne is in the pipelines, and this is only possible because of the support of so many caring people.”

One of those “caring people” is Dr. Brenda Wong from the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. Wong was the honored guest of the evening at the 2015 gala. She is the director of the Comprehensive Neuromuscular Center at the hospital and has been responsible for leading important clinical trials on various Duchenne therapies.

Duchenne is a progressive muscular wasting disease that leaves boys in a wheelchair by their mid-teens and claims their lives by their mid-20s. Some 300,000 boys worldwide are affected.

To learn more, visit https://www.cureduchenne.org.

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Next stop — 1 million?

An astounding $950,000 was raised at the March gala benefiting the Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA). The event, billed as “Next Stop — London” unfolded March 28 at the Hotel Irvine Jamboree Center, co-chaired by Missy and Chris Callero, Marla Newkirk-Fong and Michael Fong, and Julie and Doug Garn.

Close to 600 guests filled the Hotel Irvine ballroom, dressed in springtime black-tie to support the school that offers 15 arts conservatory programs to its students. OSCA donors must raise $8 million each year, which represents $4,000 per student, in order to finance its ambitious conservatory programs beyond tuition paid by students..

The 2015 evening was created around a British pop culture theme and featured OSCA student entertainers, more than 200 of them, in a full stage production featuring songs from British artists such as Adele, Sting, Eric Clapton, David Bowie, Queen and the Beatles.

Big news of the night came from donors Martha and James Newkirk making a $2-million donation to OCSA’s “Masterpiece in the Making” campus completion campaign. The gift will support a new 60,000-square-foot instructional center set to open later this summer, which will be named the Newkirk Family Visual Arts Center.

Other major donors of the night included Newport citizens Marybelle and S. Paul Musco, Sandra Segerstrom Daniels, Maureen and Mike Mekjian, Sally Segerstrom Andrews and Toby Andrews, and Harriet and Sandy Sandhu.

To learn more about OSCA, go to https://www.ocsarts.net.

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Mrs. A. does it again

She is arguably one of the most generous philanthropists in the O.C., maybe the most generous. Julianne Argyros joined hundreds of her admirers March 26 at Orange County’s Discovery Cube for the unveiling of the Julianne Argyros Showcase Theatre at the Discovery Cube Center on Santa Ana’s Main Street. The family-friendly Thursday afternoon welcomed parents and their children as the Cube’s Board of Directors lauded Argyros for her mega-generosity.

The new theater, with world-class technology, is expected to serve upward of a million visitors annually. The innovative construction allows for the theater to double as a 10,000-square-foot exhibition hall and transform into a 500-seat-theater. The theater will be used for lectures promoting learning in the science and technology arena.

THE CROWD runs Fridays and Saturdays. B.W. Cook is editor of the Bay Window, the official publication of the Balboa Bay Club in Newport Beach.

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