Chesapeake Bay Blues Fest a roaring success

Chesapeake Bay Events announced  that the 2015 Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival was a huge success.

After holding a smaller festival in Southern Maryland in 2014, the Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival (CBBF) returned to Sandy Point State Park in Annapolis, Maryland  in May 2015.  “Not only did we offset a fairly large deficit from 2014, the CBBF was able to give a generous amount to charity” said festival promoter, Don Hooker. 

The charities receiving donations are:

We Care and Friends

The festival is fully funding the We Care and Friends 2015 School on the Water summer camp for underprivileged youth.  It is also partially funding ongoing help that We Care provides throughout the year. Larry Griffin, founder of We Care and Friends said ” I want to thank everyone who helped with the festival by working, sponsoring or buying a ticket.  You have made a big difference to the people in Annapolis”.

After personally recovering from addictions and homelessness, Larry has devoted the last 25 years to making the “Village” of Annapolis a better place to live. We Care offers support and resources for people who are homeless, those with substance abuse issues and others in need of food, shelter, clothing and other basic needs.

Special Love, Inc.

The festival is fully funding  the Family Reunion Weekend in June. 

Special Love’s Reunion Family Weekend hosts pediatric cancer survivors and past attendees of Camp Fantastic and lets them relive the happy memories that got them through their cancer experience.  The weekend also attracts current campers who benefit from meeting survivors who have recovered and are now leading active, healthy lives.  Reunion Weekend includes traditional camp classes like crafts, sports, and fishing, as well as special entertainment and programs. 

“We’re so proud of our partnership with the Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival,” said Special Love CEO Dave Smith, “And thrilled that the proceeds from it could sponsor Reunion Weekend.  Like the annual music festival, Reunion Weekend gives patients and families the chance to reunite and catch-up, all in an environment of fun and community.”

Special Love sponsors Camp Fantastic and over a dozen other programs, giving young cancer patients the chance to enjoy traditional camp activities like crafts, campfires, and recreation. And that helps them feel like kids again. Special Love was founded in 1983 by Tom and Sheila Baker of Winchester after they lost their daughter, Julie, to lymphoma at the age of 13.        

Camp FACE

In 2014,  Camp Face was cancelled due in part to our inability to make a donation.  We are pleased to announce that, due to this year’s CBBF success, we will be funding two years of the Camp Face, a camp for children with facial differences.   

Camp FACE is a program founded by the specialists at Johns Hopkins and Mercy Medical Center who treat patients with complex facial deformities. Patients with a facial difference from a birth anomaly, injury or even cancer treatment require the skills of multiples specialists including, plastic surgery, ENT, speech pathology, pediatric dentistry, orthodontics, audiologists and geneticists. Patients with a facial difference also require emotional and spiritual support. Camp FACE was founded to help meet this gap in comprehensive care. Camp FACE provides children between the ages of 10 and 18 with a weekend of fun and games and a chance to be themselves and not worry about how they look compared with others.  

Other Non Profits

We also made smaller contributions to Annapolis High School JROTC, who helped out as volunteers and provided the Color Guard for the festival and to our newest charity, the League for People with Disabilities. 

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