Visions of achievement from state’s First Lady

BARBARA DIAMOND

Orange County Women of Vision honored the late Karen French at the

“Faces of Courage Luncheon” May 5 at the Balboa Bay Club.

More than 650 women and a sprinkling of men attended the luncheon

at which Tony French and his daughter, Tina, accepted the posthumous,

first-ever Achievement Award from the World Vision to the founder of

Women of Vision in Laguna Beach.

“Karen loved Women of Vision,” her widower said. “It changed her

life. For those of you here whose lives Karen touched, we feel

blessed, very blessed.”

Talk about an overachiever. Karen French was wife, mother,

grandmother, school teacher, Fuller Seminary graduate, community

volunteer and active member of the Laguna Presbyterian church.

She helped found Women of Vision, World Vision’s first women’s

volunteer ministry, in 1990. She was passionate about making life

better for children and a champion of World Vision’s child

sponsorship program.

The groundwork she laid for child sponsorship has brought six

local churches into the program that has benefited more than 1,000

children to date.

“She was much loved and much missed,” said Rhoda Stanley, who

introduced a short film that featured Karen French and other Women of

Vision who have seen for themselves the pitiable condition of women

and children throughout the world and gave of their hearts and hands,

not just their wallets, to make it better.

“If it were not for World Vision some of these women would never

have gone to these Third World countries,” said Emerald Bay resident

Graziella Outmans, a longtime member of Women of Vision who hosted

two tables at the luncheon. Seated at Outmans’ tables: Denise Morin

and Patricia Hummel of Emerald Bay, Laguna Beach High School

graduates Victoria Outmans Gustafson and Onnalee Outmans MacDonald,

Rosanna Preston of Three Arch Bay and Judy Jelinek of Victoria Beach.

Joan Trivett also attended.

“We were the pilot chapter and now there are about 15 chapters in

the country,” Outmans said.

Local women on the Leadership Board include Ann Odlum, Kristen

Paulson, Marcia Finley, Marie Forde, silent auction chair Lori

Gioffredi, Nancy Daley, Suzanne Paulson, Nancy Short, Jan Taylor and

2005 chapter President Joni Rehnborg.

“We are all here today to honor Karen,” Rehnborg said.

The luncheon netted an estimated $300,000-plus for projects in

Kenya, Peru, Jerusalem/West Bank/Gaza Strip, Azerbajan, Baja, and

closer to home, Los Angeles and Costa Mesa.

California’s First Lady was the draw, and a coup for the group.

Gov. Schwarzenegger may not be eligible to run for president, but

his wife, Maria Shriver is. Based on the reception she got at the

luncheon, she could win every woman’s vote in California, without

ever mentioning party politics.

Shriver is an outstanding voice in the politics of women. And

she’s a hoot, leavening her serious message with humor, often at her

own expense.

“It is an honor to be here to promote an organization with a goal

so simple, but so powerful,” Shriver said. “Three out of every four

people living in poverty are women and children.

Shriver said she is fascinated by courage -- her uncle John wrote

the book on it -- “Profiles in Courage” -- before he became

president, chronicling politicians he admired for taking the high

road at some cost to themselves and their careers. “It is a quality

we need more than any other,” she said.

Shriver said she tends to pound the lesson home to her children

and their friends to the point that her daughter said no more.

“My mother did that, too,” Shriver said.

Shriver didn’t appreciate it any more at the time than her

children do now.

“When mom brought home Mother Teresa, I thought, ‘What’s the nun

doing here,” said Shriver. “When my family went to Israel and met

with Golda Meier, all I thought was ‘What’s with the clothes?’”

In defense of Shriver, she was only 13 at the time, and hardly

shallow. She was articulate and funny, with charm that would make her

a fortune if she could bottle and sell it.

“In spite of me, those women inspired me,” Shriver said. “We

wouldn’t be here today without the help of other women” -- and she

wasn’t talking just about her mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, an

honored guest at the luncheon.

The less-traveled road has led Shriver to establish a museum in

Sacramento honoring California women, an awesome list of doers, past

and present.

“We have two formidable women representing California in the

[U.S.] Senate and a woman leader for the first time in the House of

Representatives,” Shriver said”Karen was a woman of vision, courage

and faith. By stepping up and out, Karen and others started Women of

Vision.”

Two weeks before her death in September 2004, Karen French was

still leading the way. Her health was fragile, but her spirit was

strong as she advocated Maria Shriver to be the guest speaker at the

2005 spring luncheon.

Against the odds -- Shriver said she turned down the invitation

numerous times because of other obligations-- French family friends

Joanne and Gary Hunt were able to convince the First Lady to attend.

According to Shriver they were so persistent, it was just easier

for her to come to drive down to Orange County and end the phone

calls. And she stuck around after the luncheon to sign copies of her

latest book, “And One More Thing Before You Go.”

Karen would have loved it.

And she would have encouraged new members to join Women of Vision

and invited them to participate in the group’s volunteer efforts,

which include a trip to Palestine in the fall and to Azerbaijan next

spring.

For more information, visit website www.womenofvision.org or call

(949) 768-9207.

* OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. Write to Barbara Diamond with contributions at P.O. Box 248,

Laguna Beach, 92652; hand-deliver to Suite 222 in the Lumberyard, 384

Forest Ave.; call (949) 494-4321 or fax (949) 494-8979.