65°
The program’s second annual gala, featuring a night of fun, food, drink and song, will take place April 22 at SHU’s Martire Business and Communications Center.
Sacred Heart University, in affiliation with Horizons National, brought 85 low-income students entering first through fourth grade from Bridgeport public and parochial schools to its campus for six weeks in the summer of 2014. These students, many of whom are the first in their families to step onto a college campus, were inspired by their summer days at Sacred Heart to set high goals for their education.
"The Horizons at SHU students have a beautiful shining light inside them,” said Director Jeff Rumpf. “At our event, Horizons students will show you what the joy of learning is all about. Through martial arts, running a computer robotics race and singing with Tom Chapin and the SHU choir, attendees will be inspired by the Horizons youth, the shining lights leading to a better future.”
The evening will also honor Grace Rodriguez and her late husband Ruben, the CEO and chairman of Bacardi who passed away last year.
“Ruben and I were forced to leave Cuba in 1959,” she said. “Castro took everything but the clothes from our backs…yet we had something more valuable. We had our education and no one can ever take that away.”
A three-time Grammy winner, Chapin will perform classics such as “This Little Light of Mine” and “This Land is Your Land” with Horizons SHU students. He’ll also sing inspirational songs, such as “Salad Bowl” and “Family Tree,” and end the night marking Earth Day with “Pretty Planet.”
Tickets for the event can be purchased here.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Fairfield and receive free news updates.
