The Naples Islands Garden Club ushered in the holiday season with its 15th annual Spark of Love Christmas luncheon last month at the Virginia Country Club \u2014 blending festive elegance with purposeful giving.<\/p>\n
The Dec. 17 luncheon \u2014 which has been a tradition since 2010 \u2014 forgos the usual gift exchanges in favor of supporting the Long Beach Fire Department\u2019s Spark of Love Toy Drive. The highlight of the afternoon was when volunteer firefighters rolled in with Station 5\u2019s iconic red engine, including a truck and trailer, to collect the mountain of toys the Garden Club had amassed \u2014 plus $1,620 in gift cards donated by guests.<\/p>\n
What began as a small charitable effort has since grown into a meaningful partnership with the Spark of Love Toy Drive. This year\u2019s gift card donations, collected by Linda Pillsbury, benefitted about 400 families and more than 20 youth-focused organizations throughout Long Beach.<\/p>\n
Event co-chairs Arleen Tolle and Beverly Butters Lane, as well as their committee\u2019s 14 members, welcomed 113 attendees to the holiday luncheon, which featured a festive palette of gold, green and white. Club President Linda Frame greeted the guests, including LBFD Chief Dennis Buchanan, Spark of Love coordinator Will Nash and Alamitos Bay Neighbors Magazine publisher Mary Zerafa Loos.<\/p>\n
Pianist Ralph Brunson\u2019s lively music during the festivities and a surprise choral performance from Long Beach City College provided a joyful holiday touch to the celebration.<\/p>\n
Seen at the Scene: Susan Townsend, Nancy Emslie, Kay Berg, Catherine Steisel, Deborah Smith, Margie Burri, Trish Schooley, Sally Springer, Marilyn Bittle, Sandy Davidson, Kathy Owens, Pam McCredie, Alison Lohfeld, Pamela Kellogg, Nada Szafaryn, Barbara Jordon, Sandy Noonan, Shelly Hoherd, Cindy Murphy and Collette Anderson.<\/p>\n
Dramatic Allied Arts Guild<\/p>\n
In the spirit of the season, 40 Dramatic Allied Arts Guild members gathered on Dec. 11 at Spaghettini\u2019s for their highly anticipated holiday meeting.<\/p>\n
The ladies were decked out in gorgeous holiday attire, and the room was filled with festive cheer, delicious lunch choices and heartfelt gratitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the time to reflect on the impact the group has made and to prepare for the new year,\u201d said Nancy Koblensky. \u201cThe group\u2019s mission is to raise funds for scholarships in the arts and has been making incredible strides over the years, and anticipates exciting opportunities ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
After welcoming the group, President Claire Ranld introduced firefighter Nash, who spoke about LBFD\u2019s Spark of Love program. There was an abundance of toys for children donated by the members for LBFD to distribute.<\/p>\n
A lighthearted raffle of five holiday gifts, organized by KC Boelsems and Vickie Orphan, was great fun. The lucky winners were Jan Foster and Joan Knight.<\/p>\n
Cheryl McNulty, meanwhile, introduced Ryan Christopher, a young entertainer from Orange County who has been performing for 20 years as a \u201cSolo Singer from Broadway to Vegas,\u201d as he bills himself. The ladies, especially, enjoyed the music selections, which included jazz standards and classic songs from their favorite crooners: Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr. \u2014 and, of course, old blue eyes himself, Frank Sinatra.<\/p>\n
Members left the gathering feeling energized, inspired and ready to take on the new year with fresh enthusiasm.<\/p>\n
Seen at the Scene: Stephanie Davis, Carolyn Powers, Penny Wilds, Kay Berg, Victoria Gammer, Lesley Scheller, Collette Anderon, Susan Townsend, Julie Tonks, Marisa Autrey and Nancy Koblensky.<\/p>\n
News of Social events with charitable purposes may be sent to Shirley Wild at spwild@verizon.net. Please include a contact phone number. Send high-resolution jpeg photos, by attachment, to spwild@verizon.net and include group name and identification of individuals from left. Call Shirley at 562-594-9468 for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Naples Islands Garden Club ushered in the holiday season with its 15th annual Spark of Love Christmas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119944,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,23,131,133,132,137,648],"class_list":{"0":"post-119943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-long-beach","11":"tag-long-beach-headlines","12":"tag-long-beach-news","13":"tag-los-angeles-county","14":"tag-shirley-wild-column"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119943\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}