Ottawa Hills bash benefits school and community projects

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!: Anisa, 5, left, and JulieAnne Warr, 4, snuggle up to their great-grandmother, Adaline Manley Richards at Ms. Richards' 90th birthday party.

Mingling in the meadows were guests at the “Ottawa Hills Celebrates 2001” on Brookside Road. A giant tent provided shelter from the unseasonably cold, wet weather as guests sipped spirited beverages and grazed on delectable edibles from more than 30 area restaurants.

Meanwhile, shopping became a sport as guests bid on a variety of items including cookware, home furnishings, personal pampering services, eye surgery, health club memberships, wine, ballroom dance lessons, and astrology readings. Hand-crafted items by villagers drew bidding wars.

Just before dark, the skies cleared for nature's show - a spectacular double rainbow, which put guests in the mood for dancing to the sounds of Voodoo Libido.

In the mud with bare feet, they slipped and slid but kept going.

Mary Martin said guests told her “We don't mind mud and bad weather - it's the bugs we hate.”

Spotted were Jim and Sue White, Randy and Peggy Wheeler, Scott and Kelly Barton, Burt and Shelly Jamieson, Steve and Mary Saddemi, John and Marty Skilliter, Frank and Sarah Bloomquist, Mike and Kristen Janowicz, Tom and Kate Backoff, Dave and Kate O'Connell, and Andrea and John Monoky.

Proceeds from the event benefit the Ottawa Hills Foundation, a building endowment for community and school projects and programs.

Barbara Hendel is The Blade's society editor. E-mail her at bhendel@theblade.com.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!: Anisa, 5, left, and JulieAnne Warr, 4, snuggle up to their great-grandmother, Adaline Manley Richards at Ms. Richards' 90th birthday party.

Adaline Manley Richards celebrated her 90th birthday recently with family and friends at Astor Place, where she resides.

The nonagenarian, who grew up in Holland, Ohio, has seen it all - radio, television, airplanes, a man on the moon, and computers. And her accomplishments are vast too, including being a past matron of the Maumee Eastern Star chapter and a past mother adviser for the Maumee Rainbow Girls.

She drove a school bus and was the first bookkeeper for Astor Place, which was started by her family. Her grandson, John Stone, the administrator, joked "she gets a deal on rates.'' He recalled other special qualities, including being able to make "the world's best apple pie.'' Among the 125 guests were her nine grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, and the hosts of the party Donna and Jack Stone, her daughter and son-in-law.

READY TO GO: Mary and Walt Kreuger, in the front, Gail and Mike Mahaffey, and Frances and Scott Parry, in the back, were planning their get-aways at the Great Escape party.

Tropical cocktails and exotic grazing in a Polynesian atmosphere - Who cares if it's cold and wet outside? Guests who attended "Book Your Great Escape Now!'' party Saturday evening in the Perrysburg home of Mike and Gail Mahaffey were toasty as "travel agents'' Scott and Francis Parry put dream vacations on the auction block, including excursion packages to Big Sky, Mont.; New York City; Washington; Hilton Head; West Virginia; Catawba Island; Michigan; France; Steamboat Springs, Colo., and the Caribbean islands.

And there were a few stay-at-home options, too - a home-cooked Italian dinner and a glass-blowing session with a local artist.

The evening was the seventh event of 27 scheduled parties that make up the "Maumee Valley Mix-Up 2001'' to benefit Maumee Valley Country Day School's Milton Endowment Fund for faculty/staff professional development.

On the guest list of 100 were Steve and Ann Stranahan, Deke and Hope Welles, Elizabeth and Charlie Hepker, and Dave and Hiliary White.

Hosts with the Mahaffeys were Becky and Dean Kasperzak, Walt and Mary Krueger, and the Parrys.

Members and guests of the Association of International Physicans of Northwest Ohio danced the night away Thursday evening at Toledo Country Club. The dance floor was packed as the Henna Blues band of Windsor played Indian Rap and other Eastern music, as well as favorite American tunes, including Sinatra's "New York, New York.''

Band members included four men from the United States and Africa and three daughters of Indian descent and their mother, who stole the show as she sang and taught guests to dance.

The dancing helped burn off the tasty ethnic and American food guests feasted on earlier in the evening. Among the 150 members and guests were president Mitzi Tamirisa and auxiliary president Virginia Crotte.

Rock'n'roll pioneer Chuck Berry is scheduled to be the headline entertainer for the Valentine Theatre Gala October 20, according to event chairperson Lisa Silverman. The announcement was made last Thursday at a kick-off reception in the Grand Lobby.

Mr. Berry will perform for 70 minutes with no intermission, followed by a 50's-themed party that will include food stations and dancing in the Historic Lobby and attached tent. "I hope people remember to wear their dancing shoes,'' Mrs. Silverman remarked.

AN ARTISTIC CROWD: Sculptor Albert Paley, left, Kate and Scot MacPherson, and Carol Bentley of the Anderton Bentley Fund took in the festivities in the Toledo Club as guests honored the opening of the Georgia and David K. Welles Sculpture Garden.

Cold weather and overcast skies were no deterrent for the 300-plus guests at the opening celebration of the Georgia and David K. Welles Sculpture Garden Friday evening on the front lawn of the Toledo Museum of Art.

The ceremony, open to the public, featured Raymond Sokolov, editor of the Leisure and Arts page of the Wall Street Journal, as well as honored guests and sculptors whose works are represented in the gardens.

Director Roger Berkowitz' comment that "David and Georgia Welles represent the founders of the second century of the Toledo Museum of Art as Scott and Florence Libbey were the founders of the first century" was the prize comment recalled by most guests.

The dedication was brief, guests strolled the gardens oohing and aahing. Herb Metzger remarked "Wow!. fantastic" of the landscape-enhanced sculptures. Mary Lou Fox exclaimed "the museum is making waves with high energy."

Associate director of operations Carol Bintz wondered if the art would cause traffic jams.

Meanwhile European art curator Larry Nichols made like a sculpture when no one was looking and stood on his head.

A who's who name-dropping group of power players retired to the Toledo Club for a special celebration dinner. Spotted were the Bentley clan, including Gill, Tom, James, and Carol - her husband, Pete Bentley, came to the dedication, then rushed off to his Yale reunion.

But their daughter and son-in-law Kate and Scot MacPherson of Boston escorted her to the dinner. The MacPhersons will be moving back to Perrysburg in July.

The Hector Guimard "Paris Metro Entrance" sculpture was purchased with funds from the Anderton Bentley Fund in memory of Anderton Lewis Bentley and Hilda Grosh Bentley.

Also seen were Sara Jane and Bill DeHoff, Bob and Jane Abspach, Fran and Dick Anderson, Marion and Eb Knight, Tim Valko, Jim Moore, Helen and Greg Emmert, George and Kathy Jones, and former director David Steadman and his wife, Kathy.