A record 674 residents of Lake Forest and Lake Bluff donned tux and gown last weekend to raise more than $63,000 for their joint cause: the Gorton Community Center. The annual gala, ”A Little Dance for a Big Cause,” isn`t so little anymore.
But Jackie Smith of Lake Forest remembers when the name fit the times. The year was 1972 and Smith, husband Brooks and a small band of civic-minded dreamers were trying to save Gorton School from the wrecker`s ball. They had promised to raise the dollars needed to turn the school into a community center without using tax dollars.
”We raised $4,000 or $5,000. That was an unheard of amount of money. But having a fundraiser like this was so unique back then that everything was donated. We had no costs. We had no idea about underwriting,” Smith said. (
But the numbers worked, because Smith and company kept their community center expenses down by doing everything. ”We even fixed the electrical things ourselves. Now the Gorton operation is very sophisticated and reliable. We can all bank on it. Gorton has grown up,” she said.
And so has the benefit, which raises one-fourth of Gorton`s approximately $250,000 budget.
”It (Little Dance) may be the biggest misnomer of all time,” said event chairwoman Mary Pasquesi.
The record attendance didn`t faze Miranda and Robert Donnelley, who hosted the benefit on the back lawn of their 19-acre estate in western Lake Forest.
”It`s a great honor for the property to have the Gorton benefit here. We feel very strongly about Gorton. We`ve all been involved in Gorton activities,” Miranda said.
Gorton runs the age gamut from senior citizen activities to child day care and houses numerous local organizations.
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As Gorton`s immediate past board Chairman John Looby III remarked as he surveyed the partygoers, ”Gorton attracts a cross section of the communities. Not just one group of people. It is a real unifying force.”