Extraordinary Lives Foundation Fundraising Success

Extraordinary Lives Foundation (ELF) - a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving children’s mental health and wellness - generated over $60K in net proceeds at its fourth Comedy Night fundraising gala on October 20 featuring comedian and former KNBC weatherman Fritz Coleman.

Held at the historic Wilcox Manor in Tustin, the festive evening began with a cocktail hour, silent auction and tours of the Wilcox Manor. Dinner was followed by a program led by Extraordinary Lives Foundation founder/director Mara James and concluded with the live comedy show hosted by comedian Frances Dilorinzo and featuring comic Karen Rontowski and Coleman who returned to his roots of stand-up comedy to help charitable organizations raise funds.

“With the incredible support of our sponsors, attendees and volunteers, we met both our fundraising goal and the opportunity to bring light and laughter while raising awareness and funding for children’s mental health and wellness,” Extraordinary Lives Foundation founder and CEO Mara James said.

Dr. James Lin of Reproductive Fertility Center was the event’s title ‘Belly Laugh’ sponsor and he led the live fund-a-need campaign with a $10K donation. Other notable guests and support came from Adrienne & Rick Matros, Hoag Hospital Presbyterian President CEO Robert Braithwaite and his wife Lisa, Tilly and Larry Levine and Ziggy Marley’s bass player Pablo Stennett and his wife Cookie.

An estimated one in five children have a diagnosable mental health condition and with numbers on the rise, it is said that mental health is the ‘next pandemic’ with children facing long-term after effects. Funds from the Comedy Night will fund ELF’s Piggie Bear educational resources to increase children’s Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and their HUGS for Life Healing Center, bridging the gap between medical professionals and vetted holistic healers.

In addition to the live comedy show, the event included a special video, Kim Gubner singing the Piggie Bear “I am Amazing!” song and Wilcox Manor owner Lindberg McPherson led the fund-a-need paddle raise.

For more information about ELF, visit https://www.elfempowers.org/.

About Extraordinary Lives Foundation (ELF)

Founded in 2015, ELF’s mission is to improve children’s mental health and wellness and support families by providing educational tools, resources and awareness events. ELF has two primary initiatives: sharing their character Piggie Bear® to increase children's social-emotional coping skills, and the development of their HUGS for Life Healing Center to bridge the gap between medical professionals and holistic healers. Their goal is to destigmatize mental health challenges by normalizing conversation and encouraging families to reach out for help. ELF extends healing tools like their Piggie Bear® books and toolkits to children in hospitals, foster care facilities, shelters, and deployed military families and is proud to provide both clinical resources and holistic healer referrals to assist families with mental health challenges.

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