LEAP Year Event
Join 500+ community members for LEAP's (Leadership, Education, and Athletics in Partnership) premier annual celebration, LEAP Year Event , honoring CT State Senator Martin Looney and New Haven Public Schools Superintendent Madeline Negrón , and celebrating 33 years of LEAP’s community impact.
In 2025 alone, LEAP served over 1,800 young people through our free, year-round programs across our seven New Haven sites. Our multi-tier mentorship model enables us to hire & train local high school and college students as mentors, creating numerous pathways for the next generation of community leaders.
LEAP Year Event raises over $500,000 annually to directly fuel our free, neighborhood-based programming.
The evening begins with a reception (5:00 PM-7:00 PM) featuring food, drinks, and remarks from honored guests and LEAP youth leaders who will share their transformative experiences. Attendees then continue to intimate dinners (7:30 PM-9:30 PM) hosted throughout New Haven, creating meaningful connections while celebrating our community's investment in young people.
Dinner Guests of Honor and topics include:
- University Librarian Barbara Rockenbach , who is leading a guided tour of Sterling Memorial Library. Built to evoke the great European libraries of the past, Sterling is approaching its centennial as a place of learning, reflection, and discovery. Explore the Library’s history, its extraordinary collections, and the spaces that continue to support scholarship across generations. Following the private tour, guests will proceed to dinner at Mory’s.
- Emmy and Peabody award-winning documentary film director and producer Rachel Dretzin , whose work on Netflix, NBC, and PBS includes Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey, Who Killed Malcolm X?, and Hope and Fury. She will share the ethical decisions she faces in her work, including the impact of AI on filmmaking.
- Norka Hernandez Nadal , founder of BombaWorksNYC: dancer, singer, percussionist, and drum maker who will introduce you to Bomba music and dance. Developed by enslaved West African people and their descendants, Bomba reflects historic resistance on Puerto Rico’s sugar plantations and current cultural solidarity.
- Ché Dawson , Principal of Highville Charter, a close-knit, community-rooted, culturally affirming PreK-12 school characterized by small classes, caring relationships, data-driven curriculum, and whole child growth. Before assuming leadership of Highville in 2021, Dawson served as Executive Director of LEAP and in other educational roles around New Haven.
These are just four of the 28 generous hosts. For more information, visit the link to our website below!
For more information or media inquiries: treeder@leapforkids.org, or visit our website at https://www.leapforkids.org/lye!