The social season kicks into gear this month — a fact we’d be hard-pressed to miss, having received the first wave of invitations in September. “It isn’t enough that they come in the mail every day,” says Nelda Linsk, chair of the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center luncheon since its inception 14 years ago and Skins polo match at Eldorado Country Club since it started nine years ago. “Now there is so much competition that we are receiving ‘save the date’ cards three to six months in advance of each event.”

Linsk remembers when she and her late husband Joe brought only golf and tennis clothes on their trips to Palm Springs. “Joe wouldn’t even bring a tie,” she says. “He had shirts made to order for him in Italy that tied like an ascot. He even gave them to his friends so they wouldn’t have to wear ties.”

There were only two black-tie events when they moved here permanently in 1966: the Palm Springs Desert Museum Gala and the Desert Hospital Auxiliary fundraiser. “Now there are three black-tie benefits a week!” she says.

When Zetta Castle and her former husband, actor Don Castle, opened Red Barn in 1951, there was only one fundraiser: the week-long Desert Circus. She recalls, “It had a parade down Palm Canyon Drive, a hat parade, the Insanities [entertainment revue], and mock raids on restaurants where those who didn’t wear Western gear were ‘arrested’ and thrown into a mock jail in the center of town. The only way they could get out was to fork over money for the charities supported by Desert Circus.”

Castle, a screen and television writer, serves on the board of ACT for MS and has been active with the museum, Braille Institute, Shelter From the Storm, and AIDS Assistance Program.

Twila Wernicke and Cyma Cohen, who will chair “The Art of Shopping” for the museum on March 7, say working on benefit committees also nets lasting friendship. Wernicke moved here in 1970 from Chicago with her husband, Alex, while Cohen and her husband, Leo, moved here from San Francisco 19 years ago. Neither of them knew anyone here. Both envisioned a peaceful life of desert serenity and relaxation. And then each discovered Palm Springs Desert Museum and met Betty Rennig, the museum trustee who asked each woman to attend a Monday meeting where volunteers she called “elves” were making holiday ornaments for a fundraising party. “It was so much fun,” Cyma says. “That’s when I learned to use a glue gun. This has become a way of life for me!”

Wernicke and Cohen were swept into the maze of benefits. They are both active in Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center, where Wernicke chaired the Frank Sinatra Celebrity Golf Tournament gala for nine years and now oversees all fundraisers during the Sinatra tournament. Cohen co-chaired the Frank and Barbara Sinatra Cookbook for the Children’s Center, still a big seller, with Sharon Spiegel and was one of the original 100 Muses, the organization that supports McCallum Theatre.

Lee Appel calls her 19 years as a museum docent “the sweetest part of my life.” Appel moved to Palm Springs in 1980. Janice Lyle, the museum’s executive director, encouraged Appel to become a docent. “Once I started, I was hooked,” Appel says. She used to play tennis every day, but as museum president now feels fortunate to play three games a week.

A big challenge in planning a large fundraiser is setting dates that work for those who participate. “You have to book dates seven and eight months in advance,” says Susan Reynolds, executive director of Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center. “If you are trying to coordinate performers’ schedules, it becomes very difficult.”

Neither Judy Vossler, vice president of Landmark Golf Club, nor daughter Lisa, assistant marketing director at Bighorn Golf Club, have time to actually play golf. “I was 2 years old when I was first taught to play golf,” says Lisa, whose grandfather is Ernie Vossler, a former golf professional and head of Landmark Golf Club. “But with my activities with the Junior League and as a volunteer at the Boys and Girls Club of Coachella and Indio, Pegasus Riding Academy for the Handicapped, Shoes That Fit, and Indian Wells Town Hall [lecture series], there just isn’t time to play.

Helping her community is something that Lisa learned from her mother, who moved to La Quinta from Oklahoma 25 years ago. Lisa was 10. “I thought I would work, be with my family, and raise my daughter,” Judy says. “I did all of that, but I never expected to become as involved as I am in the commu-nity.” Now she’s out five nights a week attending charity or community events — or planning them. Judy serves on the boards (and many committees) of the museum, Indio Chamber of Commerce, La Quinta Historical Society, Boys and Girls Club of the Coachella Valley, Athena Committee of Palm Desert, and Palm Springs International Film Festival, and volunteers at Indian Wells Town Hall.

Scott, K.C., and Michael Kiner grew up on a golf course — on the 11th fairway of Thunderbird Country Club, and sports have always factored into their lives. Their dad, Ralph Kiner, is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and their mother, Nancy Chaffee Kiner Whitaker, was U.S. indoor tennis champion for two years. Michael played baseball as a youth; K.C. played tennis and rode in horse shows; and Scott was a member of both the junior tennis and golf teams. Today, Scott only gets to play golf once a month. “Ninety percent of the golf that I play is in nonprofit or charitable tournaments,” he says. “I don’t have time to belong to a golf club.”

Many of his clients at Kiner Communi-cations are nonprofits, including Riverside County Red Cross (Kiner is vice chairman) and Coachella Valley Economic Agency. He donates his time and talent to helping other nonprofits — such as Desert Cancer Foundation, Coachella Valley on Stage, Dusty Wings, and Cops for Kids — with logo and invitation designs. Of the 600-plus nonprofits in Coachella Valley, he says, “There are so many that the average person doesn’t hear about. For instance, Palm Desert High School has a baseball team, but the city doesn’t have funds for capital improvements. The parents give an annual golf tournament at Bighorn Golf Club to raise money to maintain the baseball facilities. They pay $2,000 a pop and invite major league baseball players to participate. They have raised so much money that the high school facilities are as good as or better than those at Dodger Stadium!”

Michelle McQuade-Smith — a Santa Monica transplant with her husband Frank and two children, Mackenzie, 3, and Brooke — has lived in La Quinta for only one year. She gave up the foundation director position at USC’s College of Letters, Arts and Sciences to be a stay-at-home mom. However, she was enlisted to co-chair Junior League’s fundraising committee, and she has joined MOMs (Moms Offering Moms support), coordinating play groups and dinners for mothers whose husbands have unusual work schedules.

“People come here to retire and then find they are busier here than they were when they were working,” says Lisa Houston, who runs a real estate business, raises and trains 13 show horses, volunteers at Pegasus Riding Academy for the Handicapped, serves on the College of the Desert Foundation board, and, with her husband Jim Houston II, raises their 2-year-old son, Jim “J.T.” Houston III. The Houstons co-chair the Grand Prix Luncheon and Horse Show benefit for COD on Feb. 11. “I get up at 5 every morning to work the horses before I give breakfast to J.T. and go to work,” she says, adding that she and her husband attend about 80 percent of the benefits to which they are invited.

Her in-laws, Jackie Lee and Jim Houston, are honorees, honorary chairs, or underwriters of many of each season’s major fundraisers. “They usually buy two tables to each event, and so we are always included,” Lisa says.

Even the senior Houstons concede that they can’t attend every event. “We try to keep it down to two or three a week,” Jackie Lee says. “Sometimes, of course, we attend more. But we would rather support the events financially and have some evenings to ourselves.”

They recently completed a new home in Palm Springs with 11,000 square feet of garden space. “We love to entertain,” Jackie Lee beams, “and we have designed the garden so there is room for any size tent or number of people.” Their annual Halloween party drew 680 guests this year and promoted the annual Desert Samaritans for the Elderly benefit on Nov. 21 that honors Betty Barker as Samaritan of the Year.

Jim Houston Sr. serves on the boards of McCallum Theatre and Eisenhower Medical Center. Jackie Lee serves on so many boards and has chaired, been honorary chair of, or been the main sponsor of so many events that last year the state Legislature honored her in Sacramento after Sen. James Battin named her this district’s 2003 Woman of the Year.

If the Houstons do not underwrite a major event, you can bet that CBS TV2, owned by Jackie Lee, will be the media sponsor.

Michael Smith is regional chairman of Northern Trust Bank and serves on 23 nonprofit boards. “This season I am chairing three events,” he says, referring to the Alzheimer’s Association Gala on Nov. 19, the McCallum Theater benefit on Nov. 30 (Isabel Barnett co-chairs), and “One Night Only,” a May 7 fundraiser being produced by Michael Childers for McCallum (Mark Adams co-chairs). How does Smith keep up? “I am bionic,” he jokes.

Daniel Wright and Tim Clark lived in New York City for 12 years. “I thought we were busy there,” Wright says, “but we are much busier here.” The couple moved to Palm Springs eight years ago to pursue their design business and now serve on eight boards and numerous committees for Desert AIDS Project, AIDS Assistance Program, Rick Weiss Humanitarian Awards, Gay Associated Youth, Stroll Down Christmas Tree Lane for ACT for MS (Dec. 13), Fashion Group International’s Table Top Plus (Nov. 19), and the Roar Foundation fundraiser (March 13) for Tippi Hedren’s wildlife sanctuary, Shambala.

Animals have always been important to Jeannette and Don Reuben, who moved here in 1990 after Don retired from his law practice in Chicago. The couple gave the city of Palm Springs its search and rescue and bomb dogs. He would rather stay home with his dogs in Rancho Mirage than go to benefits. “Charities would earn more money if they gave you opportunities to be recognized and not attend,” says Don, who passed the California Bar in 1996 on a dare from his lawyer sons. Yet he is secretary and general counsel to Palm Springs Air Museum, special counsel to Tamarisk Country Club and the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition, a board member of COD Foundation, and chair of the General Plan Advisory Commission for Rancho Mirage.

The golf course was one reason Peggy Cravens and her husband, former Time Life photographer Don, bought a home at Desert Island Country Club. Back east, she was women’s champion at Mamaronek Golf Club, and she and Jody Parker won a tournament at Desert Island shortly after she moved to Rancho Mirage. However, she hasn’t had time to play golf in three years. Cravens chairs the Feb. 6 Black and White Ball for the Virginia Waring International Piano Competition and Palm Springs Air Museum’s South Pacific Gala on Feb. 19. In addition, the Cravens are among honorary chairs of the Alzheimer Association’s “Memories” program, and she chairs the dinner committee of ACT for MS’s “Evening at the Coconut Grove” on April 2. She also serves on the boards of COD Foundation (she is immediate past president), Desert Literary Society, and Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center. Indeed, Cravens estimates that she spends four to five days a week attending meetings. She would like to play golf again, but not now. “I feel both privileged and grateful that I am able to give my time to causes in which I so strongly believe,” she says.

Betty Barker was an industrial designer in Barrington Hills on the outskirts of Chicago. She and her husband started the Chicago Bulls and owned the team for 10 years. When she decided to retire and move to the desert, she envisioned life by the pool and time for other sports. “I’d waited all these years to play golf and tennis and swim every day,” she says.

But after a year of playing at Thunderbird Country Club, she joined Palm Springs Desert Museum’s Women’s Committee. “Then Anita Richmond asked me to help her generate funds and interest in a children’s museum,” she says. The result: Children’s Discovery Museum; she is president and a founder. Another friend, Dick Oliphant, persuaded Barker to help raise funds for a new college. Their combined efforts gave birth to California State University, San Bernardino Palm Desert campus. This year, the state Legislature honored Barker in Sacramento and Assemblyman John Benoit named her 2004 Woman of the Year.

Jack FitzGerald, recipient of the 2004 Jefferson Award and the 2002 Boy Scouts of America Award, juggles his law practice with service on seven boards — including his fourth term as president of United Way of the Desert and immediate past president of the Desert Bar Association — by keeping nonprofit meetings down to one hour “and I don’t watch television,” he says, “except for sports.”

These men and women, and so many others like them, may not hit as many golf or tennis balls as they had expected when they moved here, but they are having a ball — and making Palm Springs Valley a better, richer home for all.