Chesapeake Bay Events, Inc. is pleased to announce that the Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival, held in May 2013 at Sandy Point State Park in Annapolis, Maryland, raised over $50,000 for local charities. The two day event featured headliners Bonnie Raitt and Eric Burdon and the Animals. Despite lower than expected attendance due to a few drizzles on Saturday and an inaccurate forecast for poor weather on Sunday, we raised enough to do some real good in the community”, stated Don Hooker, Promoter.
Most of the money raised will benefit the local Annapolis charity We Care and Friends founded by Annapolis native Larry Griffin. “Larry is truly the guardian angel of Annapolis,” Hooker said. We Care and Friends strives to help people in need who have fallen through the cracks, by providing a wide range of help. That help includes: giving food, clothing or a room, hosting a 2,000 person Thanksgiving Dinner, a Christmas Toy Drive, summer camps for the underprivileged, help in finding employment and more. “Without the contribution each year from this Blues Festival, we and the city of Annapolis would suffer” says Mr. Griffin. We Care has been a recipient charity of the Blues Festival since the first festival in 1998.
Contributions were also made to Camp FACE and Special Love, Inc.
Camp FACE is a summer camp for kids with facial differences. The Camp is a joint project of the John Hopkins Cleft and Cranial Facial Children’s Center and Mercy Hospital and was founded by Dr. Craig Vander Kolk. The importance of this camp is that it gives kids who have gone through years of painful operations a chance to be with kids who “look just like them”. The camp counselors are mostly young adults who have been through the same experiences. A group of caring doctors, parents and nurses also help out at camp. Dr. Vander Kolk says that “Camp is funded solely by contributions. The Blues Festival is one of the largest contributors.”
Special Love, Inc. also funds summer camps, but for kids with life threatening illnesses. The camps provide a respite to these kids from the hospital, chemotherapy, radiation regimens that most are going through. One of the camps is for the siblings, who themselves suffer from the trauma that their families are going through. “We are extremely grateful to the Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival for their continued support to these children” adds David Smith, CEO of Special Love, Inc.
End Hunger in Calvert County is the latest recipient charity that was added in 2012. They did not receive a contribution from the festival this year. In lieu of that, Chesapeake Bay Events, Inc. is funding a second festival, the Southern Maryland Blues Festival, in September, with all of the net proceeds going to End Hunger. “Although not the scope of the Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival, this little sister festival still features national blues acts from around the world”, says Hooker. He adds, “My daughter, Sarah, and I felt that we needed to do something in our home county for a local charity.” “We are ecstatic that we have the opportunity to be a partner of what we are sure will be a world class event” says Rev. Robert Hahn, Founder of End Hunger Calvert County.
In addition to the contributions that the festival gives, these charities also earn money at the festival as event vendors. Camp FACE collects donations for Face Painting and temporary tattoos. We Care sells Oyster Shooters. Special Love, Inc. sells Ice Cream. End Hunger sells Pizza, doughnuts and coffee. In most cases these activities alone raise at least $5,000 for each charity.
