A Bevy of Fundraisers Invite Partying With a Purpose

Your teens are holding a car wash at the high school Saturday. The grandparents volunteered to take the younger children to a movie Sunday afternoon. It’s your time. Take it.

Each week, we’ll tell you about one great idea to give you a much deserved break, and make your life a little easier, and a whole lot more enjoyable.

This week, you can party in elegance (or let your own wild child out by riding a mechanical bull) by partaking in one of a number of benefits planned for the next few days. Most are to help students and young people in one way or another.  So you can feel virtuous having fun while leaving the kids at home!

Anyone who's ever been the Somerset Hills Education Foundation's Chili Cook-off on Bernardsville mountain will never forget it. Although the rollicking evening — held in a carriage house on a Bernardsville estate — benefits the Somerset Hills school district, each year there are both participants and chili cooks from Bernards Township. Last year, the from the Riverwalk center in Basking Ridge produced an award-winning chili.

The Soup Shoppe will be back among the anticipated 22 chili cooks for the crowd, along with Dental Associates of Basking Ridge and , according to the organizers of the event. Tickets and information are available online. 

Meanwhile, the Basking Ridge-based Notables Singers Inc have engaged popular bassist Hal Slapin of Basking Ridge to perform with a benefit concert scheduled for 4 p.m. on Sunday to fund scholarships for music students.

The concert is scheduled to be held on April 10 at The Bickford Theatre in Morristown. A champagne reception will immediately follow the performance, according to the announcement. Tickets are available by calling 973-543-2139 or 973-222-6565.

And, to help adolescent students achieve their goals, the annual fundraiser for Platinum Minds, a 501c3 not-for-profit based in Chester since 2006, is set to take place next Thursday April 14, from 6-9:30 p.m. at in Basking Ridge.

Platinum Minds specializes in providing academically gifted young men ages 11-17 with educational opportunities for professional and personal growth.  

Tickets for the evening are $100 per person, and may be ordered online. Elegant attire is recommended for the evening.

One fundraiser this week is for an adult, but one who has helped many students. David Palladino-Sinclair of Bernards Township founded the Rampant Lion Pipe Band locally, but also has taught students and band members at the Governor Livingston High School in Berkeley Heights. 

The 43-year-old is now battling lymphoma and his friends and colleagues have organized a jazz fundraiser on Sunday.

This Sunday's scheduled fundraiser from 4 to 6 p.m. at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Morristown, set to feature jazz pianist Rio Clemente and vocalist Elena Zabijako, was organized by Alice Cutler of Morristown and Meryl Carmel of Chester, Cutler said. Cutler said that Palladino last year had assisted greatly in arranging music for the bi-centennial celebration of McCullough Hall in Morristown. 

Drinks, hors d'oeuvres and desserts will also be served. More information on the event and ordering tickets is on a website for the David Palladino Recovery Fund.

Looking for something closer to home?  The