Sponsors Help Carousel Fundraiser Ride Out Recession

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Sponsors Help Carousel Fundraiser Ride Out Recession

By AMANDA BRONSTAD

Staff Reporter

Economic belt-tightening didn’t constrain Hollywood’s top stars and L.A.’s richest from forking over $4.5 million at last week’s Carousel of Hope Ball.

One of the most successful and longest-running charitable events in town, the white tie affair is hosted by Barbara and Marvin Davis, the Denver oil billionaire who moved to L.A. in 1981 after purchasing 20th Century Fox. The biennial event benefits childhood diabetes and the Davis’ own Children’s Diabetes Foundation, which supports research and the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes in Denver.

This year matched the $4.5 million raised in 2000, despite the sluggish economy.

Event organizer Barbara Davis said the economy did play a factor this year.

“I was worried about that,” Davis said of the economy. “So I got the performers a year ago, and we worked the date of the ball around the performance.”

Davis said the event raised $4.5 million, excluding unsold auction items, and that further tabulations should kick the fundraiser up to a $5 million total.

This year, Marvin Davis contributed an unspecified amount to the foundation, rather than the event, said Davis spokesman Mike Sitrick.

All the money raised at the event goes toward the foundation, he said.

“Some of these major corporations have stepped up to the plate,” said Jerry Digney, a spokesperson for the event. “We’ve had corporate sponsors before, but we’ve added more in this go-around.” New sponsors include Toys ‘R’ Us Inc. and watchmaker Chopard.

Digney said event organizers would have been “more aggressive” with their projections had the economy been better.

Digney could not say how much Davis would contribute this year.

In 2000, Davis topped off the event’s fundraising with his own gift of $1.5 million. In 1998, the event raised $4.2 million, with an additional $2 million contribution from Davis.

Among the top-selling auction items was a 2003 Cadillac XLR (a silver one, signifying the 25th anniversary of the event’s founding) that went for $115,000. New to the event was a gallery of works by 60 artists that were displayed at the Carousel Ball and a week earlier at Sotheby’s in Beverly Hills.

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