Whitney, husband to pay $100,000 for dinner to benefit medical service

When is a dinner for 10 people worth $100,000?

When a socialite and her husband get in a bidding war with each other at a charity auction.

Marylou Whitney outbid husband John Hendrickson on Wednesday night at a fundraiser at the Saratoga Casino and Raceway for the Saratoga Hospital Foundation to claim the prize — a theme dinner at the Wishing Well with an actual value of about $3,000.

Foundation organizer Terry Lee said the large donation had allowed them to slightly exceed their fundraising goal for the night, as they brought in more than $385,000. She said this sum puts them well on their way toward the $3 million they’re trying to raise for a community health resource center that could begin construction in the downtown area in 2013 and would serve underinsured and uninsured patients.

“Thank God they’re so competitive,” Lee joked. She added that the foundation would have come well under its fundraising goal for the event if it hadn’t been for the generosity of Whitney and Hendrickson.

In past years, the dinner, which is valued at $3,000, has been won by Whitney, but Lee said this year played out very differently.

“Mrs. Whitney always bids on it. This year they just didn’t stop bidding,” she said. “I have never seen anything like this take place … and I have been here for 20 years.”

While Lee credited the bidding process to the couple’s sense of humor, city Mayor Scott Johnson said it spoke to Whitney’s devotion to the hospital and its causes. “Marylou has a proven history and track record of donating to the hospital,” he said.

Wishing Well owner Bob Lee said his restaurant has offered this dinner in recent years, and it has been purchased for anywhere between $3,000 and $5,000.

As for what Whitney and Hendrickson can expect when they have their dinner, he said their wish is his command, but he acknowledged that his staff faces a high bar. “No dinner would match the generosity of Marylou Whitney and John Hendrickson,” Lee said. “We’ll do whatever they would like. We haven’t heard from them yet, but we can’t wait.”

The second-highest auction bid was for $25,000 worth of home remodeling or construction by Bonacio Construction, which ended up going for $18,000, according to Lee. Also on the auction block was LASIK eye surgery that went for $2,000, use of a condofor $2,300 and a whirlpool spa visit for $5,200.

Lee said the community health resource center, initially conceived in January, would eventually coordinate with other nonprofits to offer an expanded variety of services.