Countless hard acts to follow

The bulldozers danced, the fireworks dazzled and the Pacific Symphony

Orchestra displayed its formidable collective talent under the baton

of Carl St. Clair.

Nearly 3,000 Orange County residents converged on the Orange

County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa last week to celebrate

the expansion of this cultural landmark. In the end, the important

story is about the people who graced the spectacular event.

As the program began, some 200 local residents and patrons of the

Center paraded onto the main stage of Segerstrom Hall and took their

places on risers at the back of the performance space, a virtual

choir of financial support.

In the front row of this gilded choir, members of the extended

family Segerstrom, including rising community star Sandy Segerstrom

Daniels and her husband, John Daniels, faced the crowd. Statuesque

blond Jeannie Moriarty graced the stage wearing a “Nancy Reagan”

red-knit suit, proudly joining father Eugene Moriarty and mother Ruth

Ann Segerstrom Moriarty, a founding family member.

Behind the Segerstrom family, the rows were filled with generous

people from every walk of community life. Newport’s super dynamic

Arden Flamson, one of the major players behind the

multimillion-dollar creation of the Hoag Hospital Women’s Health

Center, joined Lido Isle’s Pat and Alan Rypinski. The glamorous Pat

Rypinski, designer and hostess extraordinaire, has chaired the

Candlelight Concert for the Center, helping to raise seven-figure

sums with her husband, Alan, also known as the baron of Armorall.

To take advantage of the “pun” opportunity, they all came to let

the Center shine. And it surely did. A most impressive lineup of

speakers, including major donors and Center leaders Paul Folino,

Roger Kirwan, Jerry Mandel, Susan Samueli, and Henry Segerstrom

addressed the near capacity crowd, filling the orchestra and balcony

levels of Segerstrom Hall. The speeches were punctuated with

performances by the Pacific Symphony.

The erudite Henry Segerstrom shared personal family history to

illustrate the significance of the Center in his own life.

“As a young boy growing up in Santa Ana, my mother took my sister

Ruth Ann and myself to elocution lessons and dance lessons,” he said.

Segerstrom expounded on the effect of the arts on his

impressionable young mind. His personal connection to art and culture

became a lifelong pursuit culminating in the creation, and now the

expansion, of the Orange County Performing Arts Center and the future

Renee and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall to be completed by 2006.

The new hall will be named in honor of Segerstrom and his late

wife, Renee, who also had her own formidable and personal connection

to art and society. The Segerstrom family began the fund-raising for

the Center expansion in 2000 with a $40-million pledge, which has

now, with community support, surpassed the $100-million level. A

budget of $200 million has been established to fund the expansion,

designed by architect Cesar Pelli with acoustical design by Russell

Johnson.

Segerstrom’s current wife, Elizabeth, joined him for the milestone

occasion, greeting Orange County residents and friends of the Center

with her own very graceful and warm presence.

The most important aspect of this event, this story, which this

columnist boldly proclaims has not received the proper ink from the

massive following of press coverage, is that this Performing Arts

Center and its ambitious expansion are totally funded by private

dollars. Not one penny of civic or governmental support will

upholster one chair in this new concert hall.

It’s not the dancing backhoes that performed a marvelous three-ton

ballet in the dirt of the site of the expansion that deserve

coverage, however media friendly. It’s the 200-plus founding donors

that should have each of their names boldly printed, as community

examples of the real American spirit. These people, albeit wealthy

and able to give, and encouraged by U.S. tax structure, have stepped

up and signed up, helping Henry Segerstrom and the Segerstrom

family’s gift of $40 million to more than double.

Corona del Mar’s Henry and Susan Samueli added $10 million to the

tally and have been joined by other major donors. There remains

another $100 million plus to secure full funding of the expansion.

Much of this sum will come from major corporate and personal donors

in this growing community.

Much of it will come from the generosity of people who believe in

the Center and give whatever amount they can afford to give. It may

be $50 or $100 or perhaps even $1,000. It all matters.

There are some 2-million people in this county, with about 10% of

that population living in Newport-Mesa, or 200,000 residents. Let’s

play a numbers game. If everyone pledged $50, $10 million would be

raised. With a $100 donation, $20 million, and so forth.

OK, it’s a dream. In the fund-raising world, the experts know that

only a certain percentage of the population gives.

Wouldn’t it be remarkable if we got the word out to the 2 million

residents of Orange County that participation in this valuable

community project would make a discernable difference now and in the

far reaching future for countless residents young, old and in

between. The Center already shines as a national beacon of

nongovernmental arts funding. We can make this institution a national

role model bar none. We the people. Yes, we can make it happen.

There are critics, doubters and pundits who express concern about

completing the hall by 2006. They do not grasp the power of this

community and the people who embody what truly still exists of the

indomitable American spirit.

The message is to rally behind Henry and Elizabeth Segerstrom,

Sandy and John Daniels, Roger and Gail Kirwan, Paul and Darane

Folino, Mark and Barbara Johnson, Carole and Robert Follman, Arden

Flamson, George and Julianne Argyros, Jim and Barbara Glabman, Elaine

Redfield, Kent and Carol Wilken, Marsha and Darell Anderson, Susan

and Henry Samueli, Pat and Carl Neisser and countless others who

attended the groundbreaking and are getting the word out about a very

special journey that will begin in 2006 with fireworks to thwart all

fireworks.

To get involved, please contact the Center at (714) 556-ARTS, or visit the Web site, at www.ocpac.org.

* THE CROWD runs Thursdays and Saturdays.