Raise Money

The aroma of spices from 24 area restaurants mixed with live rock and roll at Monday night's Annapolis Bartenders Ball, much to the delight of a crowd speckled with black ties and colorful sequins.The annual event is run by the H.E.L.P. organization, which aids members of the Annapolis-area entertainment and hospitality community facing unexpected medical emergencies.The 300 guests helped raise more than $10,000."I live in this area and I know what it's like to have a job without health benefits," said Neci, a disc jockey at radio station WHFS who emceed the second half of the show.

THE CLINTONS and the Kennedys (or at least Maryland's branch of the family) continue to bond politically. On Friday, Hillary Rodham Clinton will come to Annapolis to raise money for her high-profile Senate race in New York against Republican U.S. Rep. Rick Lazio. Leading the effort to sell the $500 tickets to the event are Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Gov. Parris N. Glendening and Maryland Democratic Party Chairman Wayne L. Rogers. In a couple of weeks, Clinton's husband will return the favor by appearing as the featured guest at Townsend's annual Cape Cod fund-raiser put on by her mother.

In Sunday's editions of The Sun, a story on fund raising by parent-teacher associations and the caption with an accompanying photograph incorrectly identified Meadowvale Elementary School in Havre de Grace.The Baltimore Sun regrets the errors.Remember that gift wrap you bought last fall? The candy bars that sat around the office, begging to be eaten? And the cheese loaves, the fresh fruit, the raffle tickets?Chances are good that these sales pitches -- and many others -- came with a "PTA" label.

Baltimore officials announced yesterday that a 5-kilometer run and 1-mile walk will be held downtown Sept. 11 to remember those who died during the terrorist attacks last year and raise money to buy defibrillators for city emergency workers. "This is an opportunity for us to come together to do something for a special cause," said City Councilwoman Catherine E. Pugh during a news conference near the race's starting line. The St. Joseph Medical Center 5K Run To Remember will start at 7 a.m. in front of city police headquarters at 601 E. Fayette St., loop through Federal Hill and finish at Rash Field at the Inner Harbor.

Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani headlined a fund-raiser yesterday for Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., the governor's first such event since taking office. During a buffet breakfast at the Center Club downtown, Giuliani helped Ehrlich raise $800,000 for his expected re-election bid in 2006. John Reith, Ehrlich's campaign finance director, said 200 people - including a who's who of state business leaders - paid $4,000 each to get a picture taken with the former mayor and receive an autographed copy of his book, Leadership.

With the slightest nod to political pressure, Harford Community College President Richard J. Pappas announced last week that he would donate part of his recently announced pay raise to a college fund.Last month, Mr. Pappas, HCC's president for the past three years, outraged some local politicians by accepting the 5 percent raise that the school's nine-member Board of Trustees approved. The raise boosted his annual salary to $83,475."Over the past couple of weeks it has become increasingly evident to me that the raise, which I and my family deeply appreciate, has unnecessarily become an issue to some public officials," Mr. Pappas said at the trustees' regular monthly meeting Thursday night.

Mid-Atlantic Realty Trust said yesterday that it plans to sell 2 million common shares at $15.10 each. The company plans to use the $30.2 million in proceeds to pay a fixed-rate mortgage and reduce the debt on its bank line of credit. The underwriter is Wachovia Securities, with Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc. and Ferris Baker Watts Inc. co-managing the sale. The Lutherville-based real estate investment trust owns and develops neighborhood and community shopping centers in the mid-Atlantic region.

After inspiring months of wrangling and rhetoric, County Executive John G. Gary's plan to create an independent agency to raise money for public golf courses, ice rinks and swimming pools died a quiet death.The measure, which would have established Anne Arundel's first Recreational Revenue Authority, will not appear on the County Council's Feb. 18 agenda because of bureaucratic snafu: A public meeting on the bill was not advertised according to law. As a result, legislation that Gary cast as a significant initiative will automatically expire.

Mary Scoggins would make an energetic 20-year-old envious.Some years back, the Annapolis grandmother of seven hiked 50 miles along the C&O Canal in less than 20 hours to celebrate her 50th birthday. And now that she's about to turn 70, she's going on a 343-mile, four-day bicycle trip from North Carolina to Washington to mark the occasion.Scoggins has pledged to raise $17,000 for the June 19 Washington, D.C., AIDS Ride to benefit Food & Friends and the Whitman-Walker Clinic, two HIV/AIDS-related services.

Bruce Cleland's 5-year-old daughter had just completed two years of treatment for leukemia when he decided to raise a little money to help others affected by the disease. He asked some friends in New York to train for a marathon with him and collect some pledges from others. The response overwhelmed them: About three dozen people brought in $320,000. That was 1988. Now, those in Cleland's training and fundraising program are easy to spot in the nation's biggest running and biking races.