Newark, NJ
On Tuesday, June 18th roughly 800 terrific supporters attended A Night of Broadway Stars at NJPAC and made an amazing impact on homeless youth here in NJ by raising $1.3 million to help fund our operations.
“The secret sauce is our community – our supporters, volunteers, and partners in the work and especially our staff…We trust God’s grace that we all have helped (youth) see a little clearer their goodness and remember they are loved.” Jim White, Executive Director.
It was a night that brought together everyone who has been touched by Covenant House New Jersey and the work we do, celebrating both the youth, staff and especially our donors who have made it all possible. We honored the staff for 30 years of amazing service and dedication to homeless youth. We also honored the amazing Madison Auxiliary with the Beacon of Hope Award for their tremendous support over many years in which they raised over $1.5 million to support our work.
Stars from Broadway, locked arms for an incredible evening alongside the youth of Covenant House. Neil Berg, led as the composer for the evening. Broadway stars Capathia Jenkins, Rita Harvey, Brandon Victor Dixon, Tony Yazbeck, Dan Domenech, Laurel Harris, and Haley Swindal sang Broadway hits throughout the night.
But the real stars of the evening were the youth of Covenant House. Former alumni shared their stories of how CHNJ helped them along their journey.
“Covenant House gave me a second chance at life, Lenwood Brown, who now is a staff accountant at Port Authority and also part-time Covenant House advisor, welcoming youth through the doors the same way staff did for him 17 years ago.
Current residents got on stage, singing “A Million Dreams” from The Greatest Showman. The portion of the night though, that brought everyone to tears in the audience was Cardboard Confessionals. Youth had written on one side of a cardboard box where they were before Covenant House, and then on the other side, they flipped it to what their dream is.
A big thank you to all the supporters who made the event such a success.
<<Photography laurenashleyphotog>>
