About LEAP Year Event

The 23^rd annual LEAP Year Event is an evening of terrific food, stimulating conversations, and rich learning and culture. Its purpose is to raise money to support LEAP’s nationally recognized after-school and summer mentoring programs for children and youth living in New Haven’s high poverty neighborhoods. Generous LEAP supporters in the Greater New Haven area open their doors to host intimate dinner parties in their lovely homes. A notable Guest of Honor joins each dinner party, providing a special theme for each gathering.

This year’s event will take place on Thursday, February 22, 2018.  The evening will begin with a cocktail reception, book signing, and an opportunity to hear from LEAP staff and counselors beginning at 5 pm at the Hopkins School in New Haven. At 7 pm, guests will depart for the individual dinners.

LEAP Year Event is LEAP’s most successful fundraiser with over 400 philanthropic donors, business professionals, and community leaders from the Greater New Haven area attending. With your partnership, we will continue to Create a New Haven for Our Children.

LEAP Year Event Dinners

Dinner Hosts graciously open their homes and provide elegant meals for the evening. There is a Guest of Honor at each dinner who provides the theme and leads an engaging conversation. Past notable Guests of Honor have included:

• Jelani Cobb, staff writer, New Yorker
• Alan Murray, editor, Fortune
• James Atlas, writer and editor, and longtime contributor to the New York Times and The New Yorker
• Gordon Edelstein, artistic director, Long Wharf Theater
• Mark Oppenheimer, author of Wisenheimer and a New York Times columnist
• Emily Bazelon, contributor to New York Times Magazine and Senior Editor at Slate
• Eileen O’Connor, vice president for communications, Yale
• Donald Margulies, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright
• Ann Johnson Prum, filmmaker
• Beverly Gage, historian, Yale
• Ann Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You When You Fall Down
• Jack Hitt, contributor to This American Life, NY Times Magazine, and Harper’s
• Linda Greenhouse, New York TimesS. Supreme Court Correspondent