Today, Pearls. Tomorrow, Toy Dogs

Forget rolling fairways and sapphire vistas.

It’s the chance to take home souvenir toy Chihuahuas that has golfers buzzing about an upcoming tournament at Newport Beach’s Pelican Hill.

Donated by Taco Bell, the trendy little pups that intone “How cool is this?” will be given away as party favors at the April 12 benefit to raise funds for Irvine Barclay Theatre.

“People can’t wait to get them,” said an amused Peggy Goldwater Clay, who works in the theater’s development department. “I mean, here they are, paying $1,000 to play golf at Pelican Hill, and they’re talking about the talking Chihuahuas!”

Such is the popularity of party favors--those little “extra somethings” as Clay calls them--that are de rigueur at Orange County charity events.

They can be as predictable as a candy sampler, as unexpected as a pearl necklace. But no matter their form, the favors provide event planners with the chance to honor guests in a special way.

“They show people you’ve gone the extra mile to make a gathering memorable,” said Clay, who last year gave miniature chocolate cellos to guests at a $1,000-a-person dinner for cellist Yo Yo Ma. (The event’s major underwriters received sterling-silver yo-yos, courtesy of Tiffany & Co.)

“I look forward to getting favors when I attend events,” added Clay, a Newport Beach resident and mainstay on the Orange County charity circuit. “They’re a little something-for-nothing that people get excited about.”

Never mind that guests pay from $100 to $1,000 to attend a charity event--a fee that would certainly cover the cost of the party favors. It’s the surprise element of the “freebies” that get partygoers fired up.

Been to a benefit lately? Part of the fun is sitting down to a beautifully appointed table and seeing a gift perched on your dinner plate. The ensuing quandary: Do you approach the gift with gusto, opening it even before the first course has been served? Or do you treat it with mock nonchalance, examining its contents well after you’ve had your last gulp of coffee?

(A guest at a recent gala was miffed when a table-mate immediately revealed the contents of one such gift. She’d wanted to save the surprise until after dinner.)

Retailers frequently provide nonprofit organizations with party favors, finding them a convenient way to build goodwill and showcase their wares, said Bill Thomas, director of Mikimoto at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.

“We like to provide favors to help enhance an event that is important to the community,” said Thomas, who has given away everything from pearl necklaces valued at $225 each (to the 200 women who attended the 25th anniversary in December of the Orange County Performing Art Center’s Candlelight Concert) to perfume atomizer sets worth $80. “But at the same time, we’re also trying to establish a relationship with important people in the community.”

Guests who attend the Pacific Symphony’s 20th anniversary gala in May--which will be staged under a tent on land recently donated to the center by the Segerstrom family--will get to take home more than memories of gourmet fare and dancing to a jazz band.

They’ll get keepsake china boxes valued at $40 each-- commissioned by Tiffany & Co.--etched with facsimile signatures of “all the world’s classical composers,” said Jo Qualls, manager of the jeweler’s Costa Mesa store.

“We wanted to do something that is elegant and understated but that would be instantly recognizable and associated with the orchestra,” said Qualls, who is chairing the symphony gala. “This is the kind of thing that Tiffany can do better than anyone else--something with a stamp of exclusivity.”

While many retailers are happy to provide party favors for charity events, they need “a good amount of time to pull it off,” Qualls said. “A large gathering entails a large commitment. It’s critical for retailers to have enough advance notice to secure items,” she said. “Most aren’t going to have an abundance of these gifts just sitting on their shelves.”

When Opera Pacific stages its annual Founders’ gala in June, featuring entertainment by Les Brown and his orchestra, guests will receive gaily wrapped CDs featuring Brown’s greatest hits.

“The chances of guests running out and buying such a CD are not very great,” observed Sabrina Torres, the opera’s director of development. “But if we hand them to guests on a silver platter--tied with a lovely bow--they’ll think it’s just great. We want to give them something to remember the evening by.”

Silver candles wrapped in silver organza will be waiting for dinner guests at Olive Crest Treatment Center’s 25th anniversary gala at the Disneyland Hotel on March 27.

“We’re hoping guests will take the candles home, and, every time they look at them, think of all the children they have helped,” said Jennifer Scott, Olive Crest’s director of special events. “Favors are a great way to help people remember a worthy cause.”