Stepping Stone returns to the El Cortez with its highly successful Living Out Loud gala fundraiser this Sunday, Sept. 21 at 5:00 p.m. The gala is the non-profit’s major fundraiser for the year and helps them to continue providing drug and alcohol recovery services to the GLBT community. This year’s headliner for Living Out Loud is none other than comedian Paula Poundstone.

“Paula is one of a number of people that we considered,” said Steven Johnson, the chair of the Stepping Stone board of directors. “She’s very well-liked and very well-received and has a very public history with a challenge with alcohol.”

Poundstone made headlines in 2001 when she was arrested for driving while intoxicated with her adopted children in the car with her. She was charged with a felony count of child endangerment. Poundstone, who has publicly said that she used to drink to get drunk, pleaded no contest to that charge. A second charge against Poundstone alleged lewd conduct involving a girl under the age of 14, who was one of her foster children at the time. That charge was dropped, and due to a court order cannot be discussed publicly.

“She’s going to do a 30-minute routine,” Johnson said of Poundstone’s performance at Living Out Loud. “A significant amount of her comedy routine involves her issues around alcohol and sex. There is a whole series of things that she has in her program, so I am not sure if she is going to tailor her program, but she is very aware of the audience.”

Organizers are expecting 400 people at the event, which will kick off with a VIP reception at 4:00 p.m., where guests will be able to meet Poundstone while bidding on items available for a silent auction.

“We’ve actually lost a considerable amount of funding because of the state deficit,” Johnson noted. “We estimate just from the state cuts alone it will be a loss of over $100,000, so we are doing everything we can to make this a successful event so that we can kind of mitigate the loss from the state.”

Cheryl Houk, the executive director of Stepping Stone, says that these are the worst cuts she has seen in the 18 years that she has been working in the drug and alcohol recovery community.

“This is going to be a huge impact to the alcohol and drug service system for this county,” Houk said. “Stepping Stone is a part of that service system and we’ve already had a 40-50 percent decrease in our non-residential services and a three percent decrease in residential. And there is more coming.”

In addition to proceeds raised from ticket sales for the event and VIP reception, the silent auction has more than $35,000 worth of items up for bid including sofas and artwork. The highlight of the night will be the live auction of an RSVP cruise that will leave from San Diego for the Mexican Riviera next April.

Food and catering will be provided by Terra Restaurant and Urban Grind will be providing the desert and coffee for the event. For more information or tickets, contact Stepping Stone at (619) 584-4010 x108.