A reader wrote us in response to Sunday's post about the Claremont Community Foundation's current Party Parade fundraising series:
I loved your post on the party scene (the Claremont 400 need no excuse to party with each other, but you are right, it is their official way of expiating their sins for the whole year) and have often wanted to participate. I get the brochure in the mail, look eagerly at all the fun I could be having and salivate at all the wonderful food that is promised to appear at some of the locations---- and then I look at the hosts.
My heart sinks when I see that all of them are hosted by people I would not want to spend half an hour with, never mind an evening. So, as a result, I have never been to one of their (probably works out for them, too) fetes.
The other thing is that if you look carefully at some of the charities to which they give the money they have raised at these parties, lo and behold at least one of them are on the board of directors of the recipient charities or organizations. Kind of incestuous, no? But keeping it in the family is what it is all about for the 400, n'est pas?
It is tough because the money goes to good causes, whether it's the Claremont Educational Foundation, the Friends of the Library, House of Ruth, the local Red Cross chapter, the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Reading for the Blind & Dyslexic, Shoes that Fit, Uncommon Good, or any of a host of other local charities.
But to get really involved with these things locally, you have to deal with these folks and their inevitable cattiness and snobbery. Getting involved in Claremont is a little like going to a small town where the mayor's cousin owns the general store, his sister owns the local motel, a brother owns the only gas station, they all sit on the school board and run the local Red Cross.
Perhaps that's just the nature of such things, but it seems especially pronounced in Claremont, where a small group of socialites try to run everything from the charities to the chamber of commerce to the schools to city government. It's not their involvement we mind; rather, it's the way they systematically exclude a lot good people who may have much to offer but who think differently, who think outside the 400's self-imposed box. It's the exclusivity that operates to the detriment the greater community.
Better to donate time and money to the national organizations, if possible, or to volunteer on projects and avoid dealing with the folks at the top of the chain. They will take your money though, so you can always hold your nose and give. Eventually, the money helps someone in need.
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