The Starfinder Foundation and the Kimmel Center Team Up for Area Children and Youth
June 14, 2007
The Starfinder Foundation and the Kimmel Center are pleased to announce their new partnership to enrich the lives of approximately one thousand children in Southeastern Pennsylvania this summer through a combination of art, soccer, academic education, and character lessons. This partnership offers a new dimension to the lives of the participants, the majority of whom have never had the opportunity to use photography as an outlet for self-expression. From June through August, at all of Starfinder’s weeklong summer camps, Starfinder and the Kimmel Center will distribute disposable cameras to all of the participants and encourage them to take photos of soccer in their communities. This could include adults, children, friends, streets, playgrounds, or even murals. The Kimmel Center will select the photos that they feel are the most powerful and will exhibit the winning photographs and host receptions for the winners at three of their Jazz performances.
The children’s photographs can be seen in the Commonwealth Plaza during Kimmel Center Presents Jazz Up Close performances, including: November 17, 2007 (Tiger Okoshi Band); March 1, 2008 (Richard Bona Band with Lionel Loueke); and May 3, 2008 (Danilo Perez, Piano; Gerardo Nunez, guitar; John Patitucci, Bass). At the end of the summer, Starfinder will also host a celebration at its facility in Manayunk and display one photograph from each participant to showcase each individual’s point of view.
The Starfinder Foundation is a nonprofit 501c(3) youth development organization, founded in 2002, that uses soccer as a hook to develop the strong moral character, academic excellence, positive attitude, and leadership abilities of children ages six to eighteen, regardless of socio-economic status. Starfinder’s programs serve children and youth in the five-county Philadelphia area and include summer camps and after school programs for children six to twelve and leadership programs for children thirteen to eighteen. Participants come from diverse backgrounds, and 85% of them have been designated as “at-risk, low income” by the Federal Government.
Kimmel Center, Inc., a charitable, not-for-profit organization, owns, manages, supports and maintains The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, which includes Verizon Hall, Perelman Theater, Innovation Studio and the Merck Arts Education Center. Kimmel
Center, Inc. also manages the Academy of Music, owned by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association. The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and the Academy of Music serve as home to eight Resident Company performing arts organizations, including The Philadelphia Orchestra, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Ballet, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, American Theater Arts for Youth, PHILADANCO, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and Peter Nero and the Philly Pops®, Kimmel Center, Inc.’s mission also includes arts in education, community outreach and a rich diversity of programming through its Kimmel Center Presents and Cadillac Broadway at the Academy series of performances.
For more information, please contact Sarah E. Levitsky, Associate Director of Development for the Starfinder Foundation at 215-772-5030 or sarah@starfinderfoundation.org
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