Top Jazz Players Step Up
Known now as Jazz for Jennings rather than Jazz at Jennings, the brunch-and-music fund-raiser for the Bridgehampton Child Care and Recreational Center will return on Sunday for its second year.
Starting at 12:30 p.m. at the Watermill Center, the event will bring together one of the top names in jazz music, Jon Faddis, the bandleader and trumpeter, and Randy Brecker, the Grammy Award-winning trumpeter, along with Ada Rovatti on tenor saxophone, Cyrus Chestnut on piano, Carl Allen on drums, Dan Rose on guitar, and Kiyoshi Kitagawa on bass.
The fund-raiser used to be held at the Bridgehampton house of the news anchor Peter Jennings and his wife, Kayce Freed Jennings, until his death in 2005. Mr. Jennings was a longtime supporter of the child care center. The fund-raiser was brought back last year, the 10th anniversary of his death, when it was realized the center lacked a major benefit to support its programs and services.
“They’re doing wonderful things that need so much more support in order to do more of it,” Ms. Jennings said by phone last week. “It’s an essential place in our community. Since Jazz at Jennings ended, there hasn’t been a vehicle for raising the essential funds. We thought it was very important to bring the attention again.”
Bonnie Michelle Cannon, the center’s executive director, said two-thirds of its operating budget comes from fund-raising and donations, with the remainder coming from grants and other sources. It serves 36 children in its day care program and 80 children in its summer camp program, for which there is usually a waiting list. Ms. Cannon said she hopes to expand tutoring, art, and music programs, along with college preparation workshops for older students.
“The trend I’ve seen in the community is basically that people are in need of assistance, especially our kids,” she said. “There is definitely the need for extra help from the educational standpoint. . . . We’re also finding more people in need of our food pantry.”
Tickets to Jazz for Jennings start at $500, and sponsorships start at $10,000. They can be purchased online at bccrc.org.