Non-profits unite for library benefit

The Kiwanis Club of Glen Ridge and the Friends of the Glen Ridge Public Library have joined in a unique partnership which they believe will benefit the community they both serve.

On March 2, the two nonprofits will host a jazz concert by borough resident Kenny Garrett, the Grammy Award-winning jazz musician and 2023 National Endowment for the Arts recipient. The event will be at the South Orange Performing Arts Center, South Orange.

It is perhaps unusual or even unique for two independent Glen Ridge nonprofits to strike up a mutual benefit deal. Nonetheless, the genesis of this groundbreaker was commonplace. Four years ago, the Kiwanis President Sayydah Garrett, wife of the musician Garrett, spotted sandals she liked being worn by a woman who was outside the Glen Ridge Post Office. The women struck up a conversation.

Two years later, Sayydah struck up another conversation, in a drug store vitamin aisle, with a man who turned out to be the husband of the sandals lady. Both Sayydah and this individual, Gordon Leavitt, the president of the Friends of the Glen Ridge Library, had similar interests and singular aims: How to keep their nonprofits successful.

“Gordon suggested we do something together,” Garrett said recently at the library. “He wasn’t aware Kenny lived around the corner.”
It was suggested that their organizations sponsor a concert. Leavitt said there were concerns by the library board because of the down payment costs required for this unique endeavor.

“There were questions,” he said.

The primary question, according to Leavitt, was: “Is this what the Friends of the Library should be doing?”

He conferred with Tina Doody, the library director, and they determined that any money raised had to be for a specific library need. “Tina suggested another set of lockers,” Leavitt said.

The lockers are metal cabinets outside the library front door and are accessible with the swipe of a Glen Ridge Public Library card. They were installed a few years ago to keep books on hold for a patron while the library is closed. They are a successful and popular addition to the library.

“Having a reason to take this concert on was significant,” Leavitt said.

The boards of both the Kiwanis Club and library subsequently voted for sponsoring the concert and, regarding the library, the definite purpose of the funds.
Leavitt said the original venue for the concert was Ridgewood Avenue School.

“But the sound system wasn’t good enough,” he said. “So SOPAC was considered.”

Leavitt said the partnership between the two nonprofits was very unique.

“This is two, distinctive nonprofits with different agenda to put this together,” he said. “It’s good to have more than one set of eyes on a project of this size. We just had our annual Friends appeal and received just shy of $18,000. That’s pretty good. We reached our goal.”

He said an additional locker will cost $11,500. The two organizations are splitting the concert costs and its profits in half. The SOPAC venue holds 439 seats. Among the local sponsors are Joseph A. Patrick Foundation, Glenmont Group, Blue Foundry Bank, Whisk it All and Rumi Mediterranean Restaurant.

Garrett, 63, has played with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Miles Davis, Art Blakely and Freddie Hubbard, among others before forming his own band. At the SOPAC concert, he will be performing from his recent album, “Sounds from the Ancestors.”

“We do hope to sell out,” Sayydah Garrett said. “It’s not just a concert; it’s an experience. Kenny’s favorite global song is ‘Happy People.’ People get up and dance and leave as happy people.”

For more information on the concert: www.sopacnow.org.

  Friends of the Glen Ridge Library, Glen Ridge, Kiwanis