AREA'S CALENDAR GIRLS DOYENNES STRIKE POSES FOR CHARITIES.

Byline: Amy Raisin Staff Writer

VALENCIA - After savoring cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at a fund-raiser Thursday night, about 150 guests walked away with a neatly wrapped treat, but the cheesecake hidden beneath the brown wrapping bore little resemblance to the sweet culinary creation.

Instead, those who ignored the directions ``Do not open until Christmas'' warning were greeted by some of the community's leading women - 12 foxy dames, one for each month, draped in 1930s-style gowns and jewels for the ``2002 Leading Ladies: Take One'' calendar.

``The idea that you can be 40- or 50-something young women and still feel vital enough to be pictured in a calendar, that's something we're proud of,'' said Diana Vose, president of Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Health Foundation and Miss June in the sepia-toned calendar.

Proceeds from the calendar will be split equally between the Health Foundation and the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Clarita.

Inspired by the group of middle-age English women who, though strategically covered or shielded, posed nude a few years ago to raise money for cancer, this calendar features local community leaders, business women and longtime volunteers.

Judy Belue, featured as Miss November, is also director of development for the local Boys & Girls Club. And her celebrated moment as a pin-up almost didn't happen.

``I was the very last one to have my picture done and the most hesitant, I think. In fact, I canceled my first appointment,'' she said. ``My son said, 'Mom is this a calendar I want to see?' I told him, either you won't want to see it or you'll want to buy every copy so no one else can.''

All of the women displayed a similar good nature and humor about the idea, their inhibitions and reluctance soothed by Paige Burghardt, the photographer who donated her time and put the women at ease.

Vose admitted she allowed her husband a peek at the calendar.

``He loved it. He was thrilled,'' she said. ``It's my children I didn't tell. I can just hear them - 'Mom!' ''

Immortalized on the pages of a sexy calendar, how does it feel to be a model?

``I don't think I was anyone's ideal,'' said Belue, giggling. ``I think we do consider ourselves models - role models.''

For information about the calendar, call [phone].

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Photo:

(color) Diana Vose, left, and Judy Belue - Miss June and Miss November, respectively - admire their glamour photos in the new fund-raising calendar, for which local women posed.

David R. Crane/Staff Photographer