Todos Holiday Party Raises $12,000 for Medical Care

More than 150 St. Joseph Hospital supporters took time from their last-minute holiday shopping--and $125 each from their holiday budgets--to attend the 12th annual Todos Seasonal Soiree.

The dinner and silent auction, at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point on Dec. 20, netted $12,000, according to hospital foundation spokeswoman Deborah Wolfe. Proceeds will be used to underwrite medical aid provided to the needy.

Todos, Spanish for everyone , is the “introductory arm� of the hospital’s support structure, said guest Charles Kovac, chairman of the hospital foundation.

“When people have a good experience at St. Joseph, or a member of their family has a good experience in treatment, they often ask, ‘How can I give something back?’ Todos is the place where we develop these potential friends,� Kovac said.

Supporters gathered at cocktail hour in a hotel banquet room, where a few silent auction tables were set along one wall. Chatting in small groups among the rose-and-white trimmed dinner tables, guests seemed not to notice or not to mind the lack of hors d’oeuvres and absence of music. It was quiet. There was no food. And everyone seemed perfectly content.

Seasonal good will?

Soiree manners?

“This is just a friendly group,� said benefit chairman Frank Villalobos, who mingled with his wife, Jeanette.

Villalobos, a cardiologist at St. Joseph for more than 20 years, said he was particularly proud of the hospital programs to aid the poor--the designation of party proceeds. Last year, he said, the hospital provided about $9 million in free services to the needy.

Todos President Andy Karlinski said the mission of his one-year tenure would be to increase membership. “We’ve got room for a few more ‘everyones,’ � Karlinski said, laughing.

Committee member Jana Burwell conversed with her husband, Douglas, and their friends William and Roz Ostermiller.

Douglas Burwell, another St. Joseph cardiologist, said he and his wife decided to join the support group shortly after the birth of their son three years ago.

“As a doctor you don’t think of a hospital as a key part of the community--it’s the place you go to work,� said Burwell. That attitude changed after his infant son got sick and had to be briefly hospitalized. “It occurred to me that if there weren’t good hospitals, my son wouldn’t have had a place to go. It occurred to me that we need to support the institutions in our community to make this society work.�

Browsing the silent auction tables were Kent Roberts and friend Gene Widdicombe. Roberts wore a full-length fur coat made from sea otter pelts--the source of a few pointed jokes about the Exxon Valdez, a certain sheen on Roberts’ coat and outrageous dry-cleaning bills.

One of the merrier cocktailing groups included Melvyn and Pat Sterling, George and Kate Reeves, Charles Margines and his wife, Jevelyn Yonchar.

The source of the group’s bursts of laughter? Pat Sterling thought for a moment and then giggled. “Nope. No way. No comment.� Another good joke off the record.

At 8 p.m. guests sat for dinner of Caesar salad, veal with lime and ginger sauce. Terry Eacobellis played holiday selections on piano.