Baxter, Booth make for a big brunch

B.W. COOK

“I can face breast cancer with a good attitude or a bad attitude, but

I still have breast cancer. A good attitude takes fewer prisoners,”

said actress Meredith Baxter, keynote speaker at the 18th annual

Circle 1000 Founder’s Brunch.

Baxter, the blond “girl next door” best known for her role in the

NBC sitcom “Family Ties,” spoke to an audience of more than 500

cancer fighters at the Four Seasons in Newport Beach. The actress is

a breast cancer survivor.

The crowd erupted in laughter when she said, “If men had breasts,

they’d be self examining all the time.”

Baxter, in a most honest moment, shared, “My husband was afraid

that he was going to lose my breast.”

Instead Baxter lost her husband, divorcing him.

“Ladies, you are not your breasts,” Baxter said. “A friend of mine

who happens to be French contracted breast cancer. She said, ‘Take

them off. I want to live!’ She can talk that way because she’s

French!”

Laughter punctuated a very serious message. Cancer of all forms

afflicts millions and affects the lives of millions more. The

audience applauded Baxter’s common-sense words.

Baxter said, “You can’t control what happens in your life; you can

only control how you respond to what happens.”

The very personable Vicki Booth, daughter of Orange Coast’s Peter

and Ginny Ueberroth, chaired the event. Booth was joined by her

husband Bill Booth and her father at the podium.

“I’m very proud to announce that we have raised a record high

today -- $685,000,” said Vicki Booth.

Peter Ueberroth then stepped up to the microphone and told the

crowd that Bill Booth and the Ueberroth family wished to donate an

additional $20,000 to raise the tally to more than $700,000. Then a

guest in the audience, Susan Edwards, donated an additional $1,000 to

the cause.

The energy and enthusiasm surely could have raised enough money on

this morning to fund a cure. If only it were so simple.

Circle 1000 was founded in 1988 by Sandy Sewell, who was front and

center at the 2005 event as she has been for each of the past 18

years. Since its inception, more than $5 million has been raised

through the annual brunch to fund cancer programs at Hoag Hospital.

Major support for the cause came from Marion Knott, Susan Bartlett

and Edouard de Limburg, Jean and Wesley Bellwood, the Carl E. Wynn

Foundation, Marge and Jeff Lewis, Pame and Ernest Schmider, Betsy and

Don Tarbell, the Ueberroths and Sewell.

Also supporting Circle 1000 were P.J. and Bill Burke, Sue and Greg

Brakovich, Maralou and Jerry Harrington, Trish and John O’Donnell,

Ginger Allen, Hyla Bertea, Mary Buckingham, Marilyn McIntyre, Arden

Flamson and Marilyn von Kleinsmid Randolph.

Special kudos go to underwriting chair Sheryl Anderson and her

committee, including Lin Auer, Jacquelyn Dillman, Nora Jorgensen

Johnson, Judy Steele and Stephanie McClellan, to name only a few.

A heartfelt tribute was made to the late Louise Ewing for her

unwavering support and her own heroic battle against cancer.

For more information on the work of Circle 1000 and the cancer

programs at Hoag Hospital, log on to

https://www.hoaghospital.org/cancer center/cancercenterhome.html.

* THE CROWD appears Thursdays and Saturdays.