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The following writeup was submitted by the local youth tutoring and recreation nonprofit Leadership, Education, and Athletics in Partnership (LEAP) about its upcoming 28th annual LEAP Year fundraiser event.
Have you ever wanted to explore the cosmos with Yale’s Chair of Astronomy? Experience gospel music with a gospel musician who’s also an ordained minister and Yale professor? Dine at the Harvard Club in New York City with one of the country’s biggest advocates for criminal legal system reform? Then, the LEAP Year Event is where you want to be — and you will be supporting New Haven’s children at the same time!
Reflecting their values of community and connections, Leadership, Education, and Athletics in Partnership (LEAP) is excited to host their 28th LEAP Year Event – evenings of dinner parties across the greater New Haven area welcoming attendees and special guests of honor who are experts in their field – for a night of fundraising, food, and conversation all in support of LEAP’s free year-round after-school and summer programs for youth in New Haven.
This year’s dinners are on Thursday, Feb. 23 with additional conversations on Saturday, Feb. 25. Attendees can choose from 19 different in-person dinner parties or four virtual conversations, with the option to pick up dinner from a participating New Haven restaurant.
The evening’s events will commence with a virtual reception at 5:30 p.m. where guests will hear from LEAP Executive Director Henry Fernandez and LEAP counselors. LEAP will be honoring Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, State Rep. Toni Walker, and long-time LEAP volunteer Bonnie Scarborough for their commitment to LEAP.
Following the virtual reception, guests are invited to hosts’ homes and local restaurants where they will engage with fascinating guests of honor. We will also have four virtual conversations beginning at 6:30 p.m. with guests of honor Zooming in from all around the country!
Featured Zoom guests of honor include social justice documentary filmmaker Frank Chi and television producer and LEAP alumna Shana C. Waterman, as well as environmentalists Bill McKibben and Mary Evelyn Tucker, and journalists Emily Bazelon and Ross Douthat. There is a diverse array of in-person experiences including hearing a concert from The Elm City Quintet, attending a comedic ballet performance at the Shubert, and cooking up Caribbean at the Dixwell Q House.
LEAP Year Event is a unique opportunity to learn something new and support a growing organization that has served New Haven for 30 years. In 2022, 1,200 children and youth from New Haven participated in LEAP’s free programs. LEAP also added a school site at Quinnipiac Meadows and continued managing the free programs at the Dixwell Q House. They employed over 200 high school and college students as counselors and continue to support kids’ learning development through their dynamic literacy curriculum. This literacy support was designed specifically to address the challenges resulting from the pandemic and also to represent the diverse racial and socioeconomic backgrounds of their young people. And the children don’t just get to read during the program hours. Each child takes home at least six new books to build their home libraries.
Each year, the event expands, attracting renowned names in education, journalism, arts and science. Now in its 28th year, LEAP Year Event is LEAP’s most successful fundraiser, raising nearly $350,000 in 2022. The proceeds help the organization be a safe haven for New Haven’s Black and Latinx youth from neighborhoods that have experienced historic and systemic underinvestment. From discriminatory housing policies in the 1950s and 60s to disparities in school funding, today’s inequality in New Haven is a product of decades of unequal resources distribution that have created generations who experience poverty. LEAP addresses gaps in kids’ social, emotional, and academic support and provides concrete tools to create the next generation of leaders. Many kids start LEAP when they are 7 years old and continue on as Leaders in Training, then as Junior Counselors, then as Senior Counselors where they are trained and paid to mentor youth ages 7 – 12.
Regardless of your interests, you will find LEAP Year Event dinner parties to be welcoming, exciting spaces that foster conversations that will pique your curiosity. To read the complete list of dinner conversations, guests of honor, and discussion topics, visit LEAP’s website here.
There are three ticket levels for the event. Tickets to attend the reception and a dinner of your choice are $150. Tickets to participate in a Zoom conversation without dinner are $95. First-time attendees can join for just $75 (dinner not included). The deadline to purchase tickets is Sunday, Feb. 19. Tickets can be purchased here. Space for each dinner is limited and dinners sell out fast, so buy your tickets today! Please reach out to LEAP’s Deputy Director of Development and Communications Alison Bonds at [email protected] with questions or concerns. We hope to see you there!
