Following her year as the 2017 Crystal Charity Ball chair, Pam Perella took up another project. It was the redoing her Highland Park home. After a year of coordinating constructions crews, her perfect place was even more fabulous. So, it was no surprise that she hosted the Can Do Luncheon patron party on Tuesday, February 24, for her Pam-partner Pam Busbee, who was chairing the annual Wilkinson Center fundraiser on Monday, March 2.
And while the chill of the late winter cold front may have sent some hostesses into apoplexies, Pam simply arranged for heat lamps in the backyard for guests like Can Do honorees Carolyn and David Miller, Beth Thoele, Emilynn Wilson, Diane Frank, Leslie Diers and Crystal Charity Ball Chair Tucker Enthoven, who had had a busy day. In addition to meetings galore, she had just left a handbag fundraiser for the Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary.
Still, the Perellas’ renovation had its challenges. According to Pam P., when they moved back into their digs, they discovered that husband Vin Perella’s childhood, life-size Santa hadn’t weathered so well. His head tilted at a 90-degree angle, his body was twisted in the opposite direction, and his red-and-white clothes looked like he had been mugged. Thanks to some tender loving care, Santa was back in place waving at last year’s Christmas traffic along Beverly. For now, he’s back in hibernation.