If you ever meet Rhona Silver, owner of the Huntington Townhouse, you may notice that she sparkles like a self-made woman who has overcome the odds. Her outgoing personality is hard to miss and could sweep you into her net of friends and acquaintances. On Long Island, she is swiftly becoming known for her propensity for giving.

The year was 1996, and this kosher caterer with a small business in the Five Towns and a big dream to cater the world decided to make a bid for the Huntington Townhouse. The deceased owner's lawyers were speaking to major players, but Rhona wasn't among them. She was an experienced caterer, having learned the business "from the back of the house forward," accompanying her parents to their kosher catering business in the Bronx since age ten. Her financing was in place. But she knew she'd need a guardian angel when her research showed the owner had been a devout Catholic. Rhona thought, "Who's the most Catholic person I know?"

The property had gone to contract, but fell through. It was then that Rhona's acquaintance, Monsignor Tom Hartman placed a call to the family's parish priest to open the door for her. "It took a year out of my life," Rhona says, but she won the prize. With the daily electric bill then at $2,000, she jokes, "Richard Kessel has become my best friend. I'm one of his biggest clients." But more seriously, she added that owning one of the largest catering facilities in America, situated on 20-acres of prime real estate, "has taken me from Rhona, the cater, to Rhona, the entrepreneur."

But Rhona wasn't always so confident. Her marriage ended abruptly, and as a divorced, single mom, she thought her life was over. Yet, she regained her inner strength, and realized her life was just beginning.

In 1998, at her own expense, Rhona put together a party for nearly 1,000 guests for Msgr. Hartman's Christa House - The Jerry Hartman Residence, a residential home established for the dying poor, particularly those living with AIDS.

"Nothing equals the excitement, the thrill, the love my parents gave me for the catering business," says Rhona. After her divorce and living in the Five Towns, she noticed a lack of glatt kosher service, a stringent type of kosher catering that applies not only to meat, but also to chicken and fish. The entrepreneur thought, "Clearly, the Orthodox Jewish population must want better for their parties." Rhona explained to Networking magazine that as the only female glatt kosher caterer at the time, she revolutionized glatt kosher cooking Ð taking the bland chicken on a plate to fine dining prepared in European style and presented on handsome china. "If you were wealthy and Jewish, I did your party," adds Rhona, who handled the whole event Ð from party planning to food and presentation. Word of her fresh and inclusive style spread so well among the Jewish population that she was called upon to cater a dinner for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon when he visited America. "My clients are precious to me because I am honored that they chose me to be part of their special day. They get two-million percent of Rhona."

Over the past six years, Rhona has concentrated on rebuilding and repositioning the reputation and facility at the Huntington Townhouse, but she began her career by catering parties at clients' homes or in major hotels and restaurants.

Not "just the caterer," Rhona will go to the florist for a client, help pick out a wedding gown, choose invitations, and even advise on lighting. Her employees mirror this infectious attitude of hospitality. "We're a team, and it takes a team to make a perfect day. People come to the Huntington Townhouse because of the experience we give them É food, dŽcor, service."

Presentation is Rhona's forte. This creative lady knows the art of the garde-mange chef and has prepared colorful vegetable arrangements, including one resembling a peacock with a fan of asparagus tail. For a client who loves dolls, Rhona suspended swings with flower roping from the ceiling, and on each sat a porcelain doll Ð all awash in pink. And while decorating for a baby shower, Rhona showed her artistic flare by using children's toys as part of the food displays.

Rhona holds a teaching degree from Lehman College, as well as a law degree from Hofstra University. Her teaching experience runs the gamut from elementary school to graduate school, having taught business law in Adelphi's MBA program. Rhona believes her law degree gives her "a sense and level of sophistication," but adds, "Learning to be the CEO of the Huntington Townhouse is an ever-growing process. I'm trying to learn what they learned in the boys' network years ago."

The Huntington Townhouse has five ballrooms that can open into one, providing seating for over 3,000 guests. There are five entrances, so each bride and groom has private access to their cocktail and dining rooms. There is vehicular access to the ballroom, able to accommodate a bride and groom arriving by horse and buggy or trucks hauling exhibits for tradeshows. The facility has nine kitchens, most with state-of-the-art equipment. Rhona employs a certified master chef, one of only 52 in the country, and a woman chef, who brings a continental European flare, assists him. Never one to turn down the challenge "to do a party," Rhona has been known to prepare a party in just two days.

For this whirlwind of activity, balancing commitments and arriving on time for appointments has become something of a skill. "I've changed in just about every bathroom in New York City," Rhona laughs. Her best companion is her cell phone. She is known to plan parties in her head while exercising on the treadmill at 1 am. She advises women entrepreneurs to "set goals and never falter; just work toward them." Although Rhona runs more than 50 parties a week, she thinks about tasks one at a time. She capitalizes on ideas she's gained during conversations with successful people, and counsels, "do your homework, learn as much as you can." Rhona researches ethnic and religious customs so she can make "that special part of her client's party perfect." Rhona adds, "Remember, a winner never quits and a quitter never wins. Just think, if Susan B. Anthony gave up, we wouldn't be voting!"

Rhona is listed on Crane's Top 40 Women, and she's a member of the Committee of 200, a professional organization of preeminent women entrepreneurs and corporate leaders. Reflecting these accomplishments, President George Herbert Walker Bush chose Rhona to participate in a mentoring program, matching 50 U.S. women entrepreneurs with their counterparts in Europe. She spent four days in Helsinki, Finland, touring hotels and restaurants with a woman cater. In the presence of heads of state and top business people, Rhona took the opportunity to show her caterer's hospitality. While attending a buffet, she noticed the stations were not strategically planned and getting to food was difficult. Rhona stepped behind the station to bring food to two European gentlemen Ð not realizing she was serving the Prime Minister of Finland and the head of the Finish Chambers of Commerce.

"Clearly people along the way have changed my life," Rhona states. "If you change one person's life, you change the world." When she hosted her first party for Father Tom, she remembers pulling out her own credit card. Still unsure sure how she can afford it, she continues to host events for charities and nonprofits, gratis, or for little compensation.

Organizations and individuals often solicit Rhona's help, but sometimes she reaches out. She remembers approaching the president of NBC-TV to offer the Townhouse and a smashing party for the children and social workers in Channel 4's Wednesday's Child program. She bused the children to the Townhouse and gave them a day to remember, complete with food, desserts, toys, games, people in costumes, stilt walkers and more. She put together a fundraiser for a ten-year-old boy who came to America for cancer treatment.

Domestic violence and helping women victims also holds a special place in her heart, since she lived it personally, and "flourished beyond it and despite of it," she adds.

This summer, she is reinvigorating her off-premise catering business, and has catered parties from Manhattan to the Hamptons. She's even booked parties in Palm Beach. The ultimate party-giver, she says, "Now I can go over the rainbow. There's nothing to stop me from branching out."

On the personal side, after establishing herself as a successful business executive, Rhona is enjoying time to socialize. Some invitations come from people she met through events she hosted or her charitable endeavors. For example, during the last year of the Clinton presidency, Hillary was on Long Island attending events, including a Suffolk County Democratic Organization dinner at the Townhouse, when an afternoon event was cancelled, putting a hole in her schedule. The First Lady and her staff looked for a place to hunker down and work, and Rhona came through: "I'll be ready in a half-hour," she said, and then cleared her desk, gave the accounting staff the afternoon off to free their computers and fax machine, had the chef prepare Hillary's favorite meal, and found a place for the dog.

"The First Lady said, ÔI'll not forget this,'" remarks Rhona. Three days later, the phone rang and the White House press secretary extended an invitation to Hillary's birthday party. Recently, she attended an exclusive party for Hillary at the Four Seasons, where she introduced her daughter to the President.

Family plays a major role in Rhona's life, and she's delighted they share her enthusiasm for catering. Her son Matthew, who earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees in hospitality from New York University, works at the Townhouse, as does his wife Christine, who handles party favors and invitation. Her daughter Rebecca, who is completing a law degree at Hofstra, plans to join the business, and Rhona has a very special companion, "a miracle person in my life," Elliot Hurdy, who is a supporter and partner in her life and work.

Rhona's future includes a new challenge: developing her Huntington Townhouse into a destination place or a "must stop" on a trip from Manhattan to the East End. Noting how the facility is "incredibly laid out," Rhona wants to enhance this advantage with a hotel and wellness center or spa. She notes that the vehicular access to the ballroom makes the Townhouse a great place for trade shows and conventions.

Reminded of her beginnings in the Bronx, Rhona says, "Although my name is Silver, I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth. But maybe, I'm the caterer with the golden touch."