| Worthy not-for-profit organizations that serve the needs of the community |
Just Off The Street
Inner City Youth Benefit from
Kind-Hearted Kansas Citians
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| left to right: Chris Wright, Administrator of Kaw Valley Arts & Humanities, Hugh Merrill, Executive Director of Chameleon Inc., Tim Whitmer, Celebrity Host for OFF THE STREET, Mary Lou Jaramillo, Executive Director for Mattie Rhodes Center. |
On Thursday, November 7, Kansas City based jazz pianist Tim Whitmer emceed the first OFF THE STREET fund raiser benefiting three non-profit arts agencies serving inner city youth. The event included dinner, silent auction, benefit concert and an after-dinner party. Performers included Hugh Merrill, Tom Sciacca, Len Matthies, Ida McBeth, Bobby Watson and The Scamps.
The funds raised from this event will support the work of Chameleon Inc., Kaw Valley Arts & Humanities and Mattie Rhodes Center. Chameleon Inc. serves young people ages 5-21 east of Troost Avenue; Kaw Valley Arts & Humanities supports programming in Wyandotte County and Mattie Rhodes Center focuses mainly on communities on Kansas City’s West Side.
The event began with a Benefactors dinner and fine art auction at Frondizi’s Ristorante on Main Street, just off the Plaza. After dinner, emcee Tim Whitmer led benefactors across Main Street to the tune of his jazz flute. Youth from all three agencies then formed an honor guard standing along brightly colored chalk sidewalk murals.
Julia Othmer opened the benefit concert at Community Christian Church. She also performed an original piece inspired by her work as an artist & educator for Chameleon Inc. Tim Whitmer and the KC All-Stars then kicked off a 90-minute, non-stop show featuring the best in Kansas City jazz, including Ida McBeth and Bobby Watson.
The evening closed with an after-party at Frondizi’s with music by The Scamps. Proceeds benefit Chameleon Inc., Kaw Valley Arts & Humanities and Mattie Rhodes Center. Please call Leigh Ann Hogan at Chameleon (816-221-7529) for more information about these good causes.
Planning for the benefit began in June with the aim of developing a single event that would raise awareness of the effectiveness of the arts in helping young people while also raising much needed dollars to support existing programs and scholarship funds. It has been estimated that in today’s economy, the average nonprofit charitable cause suffers from at least a 20% decrease in funding.
“The concept of a unifying event around a common theme of ‘teaching children skills for life through the arts’ was very exciting for all of us,” says John Fierro, Development Director for Mattie Rhodes. Cooperation was key. According to Hugh Merrill, Executive Director of Chameleon Inc., “The main reason this event came together so smoothly was our willingness to trust in each other and share a vision of creative, resilient children.”
Bernstein-Rein Advertising came on board as creative sponsor and named the event OFF THE STREET to capture the agencies’ common objective: get kids out of high-risk and dangerous situations through creative, skill building programs in the arts.
“One of the great things about this partnership has been the opportunity to work with Bernstein-Rein, a corporation we might never have enjoyed as a sponsor without this creative alliance,” says Chris Wright, Administrator of Kaw Valley Arts & Humanities.
Finding creative solutions to old problems is a daily task for these agencies. Dance, computer graphics, theatre, puppetry, creative writing, sculpture and photo-graphy are a few of the creative alternatives to drugs and crime offered after school, evenings and weekends. Young people enroll through schools, court systems, neighborhood groups, on-line, through friends, or simply by walking in the door.
The programs offered by the three mid-sized agencies are significantly more cost-effective than managing a child through the juvenile court system, which reportedly costs taxpayers approximately $119 per day per child. Special professional training internships are also offered to teenagers, bearing in mind it costs taxpayers about $42,000 annually to keep a young person in juvenile prison.
