'Festive' dinner parties to benefit LEAP

NEW HAVEN – For the 17th consecutive year, generous hosts throughout the New Haven area will open their homes on Feb. 29, for a "much-anticipated evening of intimate dinner parties, bringing together distinguished guests and supporters of LEAP (Leadership, Education and Athletics in Partnership)," according to a statement.

"The eminent guests of honor at each of the dinners will lead conversations on diverse subjects from cheese to China, dogs to dogma, economics to Egypt, museums to the military, and Josef Stalin to J. Edgar Hoover," the statement said. "Among this year's  luminaries are Egyptian Ambassador Sallama Shaker,  iconic poet and human rights activist Rose Styron, sports writer and broadcaster Jon Wertheimer,  PBS economics correspondent and Yale professor Paul Solman , and many more eminent writers, performers, academics, and activists."

The evening's events begin with a cocktail reception at Hopkins School, New Haven, from 5 to 7 p.m., with food and beverages provided by Culinary Concepts and the Wine Thief.  Guest authors will be there to sign their recent books. The dinners are at 7:30 pm.

For those unable to attend the Feb. 29 event, another dinner is offered on March 7, featuring Dean Karlan, "a Yale behavioral economist who co-founded StickK.com, the online 'commitment store,'" the statement said.
Call the LEAP development office at 203-773-0770 for a detailed invitation listing the hosts and special guests for all twenty-nine dinners.

LEAP (Leadership, Education and Athletics in Partnership), was created in 1992 to make a difference in the lives of children and young people from challenged urban neighborhoods, the statement said. "LEAP is an after-school mentoring program that engages children and youth in opportunities that promote educational success and inspire them to become good citizens and agents of positive change for their communities. LEAP hires, trains, guides and supervises teenagers, college students and recent college graduates who run year-round after-school and summer programs for 250 children ages 6 to 12. The LEAP dinners are the organization's most significant fund-raising event. Last year, benefit tickets and the unstinting generosity of individual and corporate sponsors raised nearly $90,000 to support the organization's programs."
Learn more at leapforkids.org.

Editor's note: All information and images in this post werecontributed. It is only lightly edited here.