Oct 15, 2006

The world delivered at Black and White Ball

By Janet Duca Norton

Palo Alto's Black and White Ball on Oct. 7 at the historic Lucie Stern Community Center had it all, including good weather, a harvest moon, outstanding entertainment and fabulous food provided by 45 restaurants. About 1,400 guests, who accepted the invitation to "Jet Set: Make the Scene at a Global Celebration," experienced a fantasy global grand tour - without the real life airport hassles.

The ball featured nightlife in a Mexican village, entertainment ranging from opera to Philippine and Mexican folk dances, caviar and prosecco wine tasting in a sleek black-and-white jet-setter lounge, and music and dancing in a French cafe.

The original ball was held in Palo Alto in 1987 and was presented by, and benefited, the Recreation Department. This year, a 20-member volunteer committee led by Sunny and Dan Dykwel presented the black-tie gala fundraiser, with proceeds benefitting the Palo Alto Recreation Foundation and Palo Alto Partners in Education. "We are thrilled the community came out to support this event and had such a great time. We also are truly appreciative of the tremendous support from our sponsors and the huge number of participating restaurants. It looked like everyone was having a blast," the Dykwels said.

Since the entire ball was underwritten by corporate sponsors, all of the proceeds from admission and raffle tickets went directly to the benefitting organizations.

Attendees were all smiles, including Recreation and Youth Sciences Division manager Robert De Geus, School Board Vice President Camille Townsend, Superintendent of Schools Mary Frances Callan, Ward Hamsen, and Susan Bailey and Gina Jorasch from Partners in Education.

Auction chair Maya Escudero designed an interesting first-time auction featuring foreign trips, which mirrored Palo Alto's sister cities in the Philippines, the Netherlands, Sweden, Mexico and France, and encouraged bidding by showing enticing videos of these destinations. Jim Maliksi purchased the most exotic trip: a week in the Philippine resort island of Boracay.

Bidders, seated at red-draped tables decorated with red tulip centerpieces, could consider their bids while sampling fun food and watching the illuminated red windmill (in honor of the Netherlands). Sean and Courtenay Corrigan, Dick and Mary Lou Johnson, and Nikki and Alan Lovelace were spotted on the scene.

The trendy, white palm tree-decorated jet-setter lounge was the perfect people watching venue. Inside, dressed-up samplers wore mostly black and tasted caviar and prosecco pairings. Guests brought their champagne diamonds from the bottom of their glasses to Georgie Gleim to be analyzed. She tested 400 stones, and Rob Parish was the lucky winner of a one-carat diamond from Gleim Jewelers, and said he plans to give it to his daughter for her 21st birthday. It was also fun to see sparkling committee members and their daughters model diamonds from Gleim's.

Guests stayed late waiting for the announcement of the raffle prize winners. It was a fun night for Mayor Judy Kleinberg who won a Tahitian black pearl ring. Lois and Doug Garland won a golf package at Napa Valley's Meadowood. John and Pat Davis, Hiliary and Nellis Freeman, and Gary and Annette Fazzino applauded the winners and stayed to dance to the Brass Mafia.

Lead singer of Third Eye Blind Stephan Jenkins, who grew up in Palo Alto, and the large hip-hop/salsa Bayonics group drew a large and appreciative crowd at the outdoor Mexican venue. Beth Trailer, Chuck and Barbara Sedelmeyer, and David and JoAnn Strong and their daughter Christine were enthusiastic fans.

Sponsors, supporters and political types were saluted at a pre-ball VIP reception at the Garden Court Hotel. The Dykwels greeted sponsors and major prize donors, including Sid and Tami Espinosa of Hewlett-Packard, Tedi Vriheas of AT&T, Alex Kapisky and Libby DeMeo of Solution Set, Charlen Fong of the Mercury News, Shareef Dajani of the Daily News, Joel Spolin, and Claudia Cornejo and Peter Voll.

Cathie and Dick Lehrberg, Ira Ruskin, and Rick and Liz Kniss saluted the sponsors and committee members, including Christie Shambora, Donna Bohling, Mona Siegel and Anne Ercolani.

They all agreed the ball was "merveilleux."