By LAITH AGHA
Monterey County Herald (California)
Putting to rest one of Carmel’s biggest controversies in recent memory, the city finally accepted a long-anticipated donation from “The Calendar Girls” Tuesday night at the Forest Theater in Carmel.
In front of a boisterous crowd that showed up for a presentation of the film of the same name that inspired the fundraising project, Carmel Mayor Sue McCloud and Carmel Fire Chief Andrew Miller accepted a $40,000 check from the group of 12 women who took it all off in the name fire protection.
Nearly two years ago, this group of Carmel women, also known as the Carmel Fire Belles, came up with a way to raise funds for the city’s fire station, which was in need of extensive renovation. But the city couldn’t afford to foot the bill. To raise the needed money, the women, ranging in age from their 50s to their 80s, decided to make a 2005 calendar and sell it for $20 a copy. The calendar’s selling point was that the 12 women posed for it, each one featured in a particular month.
Oh, and they weren’t wearing much in the way of clothes.
The level of appropriateness is open to interpretation, but some of the photos could be described as revealing. No full nudity was involved, but enough skin showed to make some city staff members stretch their collars for air and squirm in their seats as they considered potential pitfalls that could result from accepting the money.
While City Council members said they appreciated the gesture, the donation was initially refused.
Some of the staff members believed the city could endanger itself for accepting money raised by women who posed nearly nude in the firehouse. So they took a stand against it.
City Attorney Don Freeman and City Administrator Rich Guillen were among those who feared the city could be sued for sexual harassment. As time passed and the issue died down, McCloud, who was complimentary of the calendar, began plans to accept the money. She had been trying to coordinate a public acceptance of the funds for a year, but for one reason or another, it didn’t happen until Tuesday night.
“Finally, when I saw that the movie tonight was going to be the ‘Calendar Girls,’ I called (calendar organizer) Mary Pankonin and said, ‘What a perfect setting to do this,’'' McCloud said.
It may not have been popular inside City Hall, but around town the calendar was a huge hit. In all, 2,000 copies were sold, and thanks to their Web site sales, calendars were distributed all around the United States and the world.
“The ‘Calendar Girls’ movie inspired us to do this, but the men and women of the fire department inspired us to take our clothes off,” Ms. November, also known as Patty Ross, said to the crowd.
Because the money was raised for the fire department, it was appropriate that among the dozen posers were Carmel Valley’s mid-valley fire chief Sidney Reade, as well as Susan Draper, the granddaughter of Robert G. Leidig, Carmel’s first-ever fire chief. And a mother-daughter duo can be seen in the calendar, with daughter Laurel Whorof and mother Paula Weber, who at 85 was the oldest to bare herself.
When Weber was first approached about posing, her response was what one might expect.
“You must be kidding,” Weber said. But after being pushed to do it by a friend of hers, whom Weber described as “more conservative than I,” she went for it. And now she will forever be immortalized as Ms. December.
“It was lots of fun,” said Weber.
“This is a great gift,” said Miller, of the fire department. “All this money will certainly go toward benefitting the firefighters, making the station a clean, healthy, safe place to work.”
The Calendar Girls do not currently have plans to pose again.