Hardly a week goes by without hearing wrenching moans from a cultural organization or not-for-profit child-help agency whose government and corporate grants have been slashed. Ditto for the groans from Illinois’ public schools. That money crunch is felt even in such affluent suburbs as Barrington, Highland Park and Lake Forest, according to many of those communities’ volunteers.
But supporters of youth and artistic organizations in Highland Park believe they may have found at least a partial answer to that increasingly worrisome question of where the money will come from, given all the budget cuts.
The “white knight” is Ravinia Festival, Highland Park summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, occasional venue of such pop draws as Poi Dog Pondering and fertile ground for numerous groups’ “Night at Ravinia” fundraisers and get-togethers.
Beginning this year, add to that description: host of an annual benefit for the City of Highland Park.
With the help of the community and sponsors, Ravinia will present Marvin Hamlisch in concert with the Ravinia Festival Orchestra on Friday. Proceeds from the benefit, called YEA! Highland Park, will go to these Highland Park-based organizations: Apple Tree Theatre, Family Network, Highland Park Community Nursery School and Day Care Center, Highland Park Child Care Association, North Shore Elementary School District 112, Suburban Fine Arts Center and Tri-Con Child Care Center.
“All cities are struggling for funding for the arts and for youth programs,” said Highland Park Mayor Ray Geraci. “We have become very concerned. We are deluged with requests for funds. And taxes are high. This opens the door to do something as a community that the city can’t do through taxation.”
Before a benefit was proposed, a tax solution was being considered. The idea of levying an amusement tax on Ravinia to help ease school funding problems started cropping up at council meetings a few years ago during school-consolidation talks among the town’s then three elementary school districts. The three districts formed a new single entity as District 112 about three years ago to save one of them from bankruptcy.
The amusement tax solution appealed to some school and civic activists, including Geraci, but not to longtime Highland Park Ravinia-goers or Ravinia board members.
And it didn’t appeal to Zarin Mehta, Ravinia executive director and chief operating officer, who explained that the tax idea had once been discarded after a city commission held hearings on the proposal a few years ago.
“But I know that Geraci was in favor of it to help the schools,” Mehta said. “So when he stopped and said to me that the council might be considering it again, I said that was not a good idea for a variety reasons. One was that it would be the first time in the country that a community assessed a not-for-profit cultural organization. He said, `But we have a problem; the schools need money. What should we do?’ “
The answer was an annual fundraiser hosted by Ravinia. “We all thought it would be good idea,” Mehta said.
Geraci confirmed that amusement-tax discussions had reached the “serious” stage until the Ravinia board and council agreed earlier this year on a benefit in lieu of a tax. He likes the partnership.
“This bodes well for the future of Highland Park and Ravinia,” Geraci said.
The problem this year is that the program, which began taking shape in February, was not in Ravinia’s brochure.
“I’m confident it will be a success even though it’s a first-time event,” Geraci said. “But it’s harder the first time. There was not all the time in the world to put it together. Next year our intent is to have it on the regular Ravinia schedule.”
As to the name, fundraiser co-chairman Bruce Goodman, vice president of Highland Park Community Foundation, explained that the title came to him during a meeting about who would benefit from the event. “They said youth, education and the arts. It struck me: YEA. That covers who we’re trying to help,” Goodman said.
Ravinia agreed to obtain the artist and provide the basics of park, reception tent, ushers and box office. Geraci pulled together an event committee of more than 60 people from many sectors of the community to handle ticket sales, donations, promotion and a benefit reception.
The proceeds will be distributed by the Highland Park Community Foundation, a private, not-for-profit agency that raises and dispenses funds to youth and cultural organizations. Major underwriting from Mesirow Financial and Chicago Title and Trust and smaller donors will cover the artist, so all ticket sales will benefit children’s and arts programs.
Mehta said he hopes this becomes an annual event. “I think it’s a wonderful idea,” he said. “Since the schools and other community organizations need the money, this is a nice way to do it. And second, I think it’s a good idea for the people who live in the community to come together to play together one night a year.”
The idea of a community coming together in a yearly event has generated excitement in Highland Park, where just about every shop window sports the event’s colorful poster, a collage of schoolchildren’s drawings.
“What’s great about this concert as far as I’m concerned is that for the first time the whole community has gotten together for something,” said YEA! co-chairwoman Barbara Hoffman, a native of Highland Park.
“And it’s an outstanding concert. Marvin Hamlisch sold out two years ago. He’s an incredible entertainer. And it’s going to be a wonderful, fun, spirited event,” Hoffman said.
She hopes people buy tickets in advance, because even if the weather is not good, she said, the cause is. For example, proceeds going to the Suburban Fine Arts Center will benefit art programs for at-risk and latch-key youngsters, according to arts center director Ann Rosen.
“The funds from this event will go a long way to help these programs. And we need whatever help we can get,” Rosen said, noting that $15,000-$16,000 in government funding that the center used to receive has dwindled to about $8,000.
As a Highland Park City Council member, Marilyn Weinger has heard the cries for funds. And as a sculptor and an arts center board member, Weinger hopes that people outside the community will attend because it benefits broad-based cultural institutions.
“The Suburban Fine Arts Center and Apple Tree Theatre get people from Chicago and from all over the North Shore,” she said.
YEA! co-chairman David Leibowitz, president of the District 112 School Board, explained that the money raised will help the elementary schools pay for science and computer equipment. But aside from the funds, Leibowitz prizes the teamwork of the project.
“We’re all interconnected. This reminds us that we are all one community. The money is good, but the overall benefit is even greater,” Leibowitz said.
Event co-chairwoman Barbara Laken said it another way at a recent party to promote the benefit. Taking a quote from First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Laken said, “It takes a village to raise a child. And on Sept. 5, that village is Highland Park.”
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Pavilion seating is $50 and $35; lawn tickets are $10, $5 children under 10. Benefit tickets at $175 include cocktail buffet reception, pavilion seating and reserved parking. Call 847-266-5100.
