BY ILONA SAARI
A
CAREY APPEL
S
OUTSIDE THE BOX
ome may know Carey Appel through her work with the Ojai Women’s Fund, some from the Ojai Women’s Festival Committee or, perhaps, when she was captain of an Ojai League tennis team. Yet others may know Carey through her whimsical shadowboxes. As an entrepreneur, singer, artist and doer-of-good-works, Carey checks all the boxes. Born in Los Angeles to real estate developer Don Appel and mom, Judy, Carey was a mere toddler and an only child when her parents divorced. A few years later, she was immersed in siblings … a stepsister and brother from step-
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OM — January 2021
dad, Dick Carroll, and two stepsisters from her stepmother, Chickie Bristin. Not the typical Brady Bunch blended family, but a rambling, robust family unit. Early on, Carey dreamed of singing on Broadway. She wasn’t too sure what that entailed, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her. At age 7 or 8, she read an article about a young girl who had been cast in “Fiddler on the Roof.” She crossed out the girl’s name and inked in her own. From the balcony outside her bedroom, she’d often belt out show tunes from movies such as “My Fair Lady,” (starring Julie Andrews) giving free concerts to her neighbors. “Years later I met Julie
