Treasure for charity

MOUNT DORA – Everyone who knows Bella Diamante wants her to hang with them.

That’s especially true of the 12 Mount Dora women who donated money to a local charity to wear Bella – an 18-inch, 14K, 3.51 total carat weight necklace with a one-carat center diamond orbited by 26 diamonds – for a month each.

“I was the first person to wear the necklace. It was part of my daily routine for a whole month. I had to work it into my outfits and had to figure out if it was appropriate to wear or not wear depending on the event I was going to or what I had during the course of a day,” said Leslie Campione, a longtime Lake County resident and county commissioner.

The idea – officially dubbed the Diamond Endowment – came from a 2008 book written by Cheryl Jarvis called “The Necklace: 13 women, 1 Diamond Necklace and a Fabulous Idea.”

The book tells the true story of 13 California women who split the cost of a $37,000 necklace dubbed “Jewelia” they otherwise could not afford alone. They took turns wearing it for four weeks at a time before handing it off at a get-together to tell of the necklace’s adventures each month.

Lake Cares Chairwoman Cathy Hoechst read the book earlier this year and thought the idea was not only fun but a great way to raise money for the food pantry.

The only difference is that Lake Cares will raffle it off after each of the 12 ladies has her turn wearing Bella.

Raffle tickets are being sold for $50, and at the organization’s 10th Anniversary Fund Raising Gala on March 30, 2019, one lucky winner will get to take her home for good.

The odds of winning are not bad, considering that only 1,000 tickets will be sold.

Second prize will be $5,000 and third prize will be $2,500. Jarvis will attend the gala.

The charitable aspect aside, the women who share Bella have become friends.

Each month, in fact, they pick a restaurant in town to meet at for drinks and dinner and to share stories about where Bella has been, who they’ve met and who has noticed her.

On Tuesday night at Gianni’s Italian Restaurant in Mount Dora, Melissa DeMarco, who wore the necklace through November, passed it to Lynn Winker.

“I hope you have as much fun with it as I did, because I had a blast,” said DeMarco. “I was fortunate to wear the necklace for the month of November because there are a lot of activities going on in town during that time”

“It was great to go around wearing it to Light-Up Mount Dora, the Christmas walk, the Art of the Deal and I will tell you, people spot you from across the room when you’re wearing the necklace,” she said.

Winker said has a couple of chamber galas coming up she’ll definitely be wearing it to in order to give Lake Cares some exposure.

“I’m looking forward to wearing it every single day of December,” Winker said.

Campione said she misses the necklace but still looks forward to their monthly get-togethers when the “transfers” take place.

“Each time we get together, we know each other a little bit more, and I feel I have some really good friends here,” Campione said.

Besides the carefree nature of the whole project, Lake Cares’ Executive Director Irene O’Malley said the necklace fundraiser will provide significant help to the pantry that last year distributed 688,000 pounds of food and other essentials to 36,000 people in Mount Dora and throughout Lake County.

O’Malley said the money will be used to expand their mobile distribution sites to serve more people and to purchase fresh food items like milk, cheese, produce, eggs, fruit and meat to complement non-perishables that come in. They also buy toiletries, laundry supplies, essential dry goods and dog and cat food as needed.

“This is an amazing fundraiser. It’s completely different than anything we’ve ever done,” O’Malley said. “It’s also kind of special because it’s brought these 12 women together who have never really known each other, and the bond is the necklace and the bond is helping our food pantry because each of these ladies knows what we are accomplishing there.”

Tickets can be purchased from the ladies, at Lake Cares or online at lakecares.org. 

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