Victoria Rowell holds party in L.A. to aid children in foster care

Jet, May 25, 1998

Actress Victoria Rowell recently hosted a star-studded garden arty at her home in the Hollywood Hills to bring attention to the plight of the hundreds of thousands of children in foster care.

Rowell, who appears in the daytime drama "The Young and the Restless" and in prime-time with Dick Van Dyke in the series "Diagnosis Murder," founded The Rowell Foster Children's Positive Plan eight years ago to provide foster children with classical arts scholarships in southern California and Massachusetts. Rowell was a foster child herself.

The garden party attracted such celebrities as actors Robert Townsend, Jackee Harry, Janet McLachlan, Debbi Morgan, Dick Van Dyke and Anna Maria Horsford and filmmaker Reginald Hudlin.

The afternoon's entertainment was provided by Grammy- and Pulitzer Prize-winning jazz artist Wynton Marsalis. Marsalis and Rowell have a 2-year-old son together named Jasper.

Additional entertainment was provided by an international children's choir made up of youngsters from such countries as Mexico and the Philippines. A high school jazz ensemble serenaded the audience as did an arts academy with chamber music. The afternoon also featured a silent auction of items ranging from a BMW and Super Bowl tickets to jewelry and a weekend for two at the Samuel L. Jackson Celebrity Golf Classic in Bermuda.

California State Senator Diane Watson was the featured speaker of the afternoon. She echoed Rowell's sentiments that much more attention and financial resources are needed for foster children who, in many cases, are shuttered from family to family until they are 18. She pointed out that many become troubled teens and occasionally end up in the juvenile justice system.