Santa's Exotic Helpers

Comments (0) By Mary Spicuzza Wednesday, Jan 3 2007

Debbie Licious and other exotic dancers took some heat during the holidays over their body-baring fundraising tactics for the San Francisco Firefighters Toy Program.

Aaron Farmer

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Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Debbie and other dancers from the Gold Club and nine other similar establishments throughout the city volunteered to donate their tips from at least one dance a night. The Gold Club girls also busted out a big ol' Santa chair for a night of holiday cheer featuring Polaroids with a dancer, raffle tickets, and lap dances.

Local media were all over the stripteases-for-Santa event, but far fewer turned out a couple of days later when a fully clothed Debbie and the ladies presented a giant $17,400 check to the toy program and helped pass out gifts for the kids. (Note to the ladies: Next time you're looking for media coverage of a charity event, you may want to try taking off your clothes. Showing some good old-fashioned T&A really seems to help draw the reporters.)

Ms. Licious has got no shame over donating her dancer's tips to help put toys under the Christmas tree. "I am a dancer, I am a good person," she said. "And I don't need to be wearing a business suit to know that."

Still, she opted to wear a sleek black business suit to meet the little ones — rather than the tiny red bikini top, little candy cane striped skirt, and clear platform shoes she'd worn to the Gold Club holiday event.

But Debbie did bring with her the huge fuzzy stuffed dog that she used as a prop when she danced to the tune "Santa Baby." She donated the dog, and even got to meet Rebecca, the 7-year-old girl who adopted it. The dog's new name is Daisy. "I like that name," Debbie told Rebecca. "That dog is bigger than you are."

The event sparked some criticism on the Web, like the barb from one woman named Julie who wrote that "getting naked and kids should have two different categories."

Toy program chairwoman Sally Casazza points out that the dancers have been devoted and generous volunteers for going on 10 years.

As for anybody who wants to criticize them, Casazza says, "I'll just ask them, 'What have you done for us lately?'"