Summer Jam At Huntington's Heckscher Park To Benefit LI Cares

HUNTINGTON, NY — "Summer Jam" is coming to Heckscher Park in Huntington and will benefit Long Island Cares — Harry Chapin Food Bank.

The event, scheduled from 6 to 10 p.m. Aug. 24, will see family and staff of D'Addario, a Farmingdale-based musical instrument accessories company, take to the Chapin Rainbow Stage and perform hit classics.

The concert is free but organizers ask that event-goers bring non-perishable food or monetary donations for the food bank.

The musicians will play covers of The Beatles, Taylor Swift, Led Zeppelin, Elle King, The Allman Brothers Rock Band, Dead & Company, The Pretenders, Elvis Costello, Paramore, Elton John, Rod Stewart, and more.

There will also be food trucks, raffles to Huntington businesses, donation trucks, and more.

Steve Mucciolo, a director of marketing performance at D'Addario and a board member of Long Island Cares, organized Summer Jam.

"If I've learned anything since taking a seat on the Board of LI Cares, it's that food security really is a human right and Long Island Cares is an absolutely incredible organization that gets the right types of nutritious food to the right people at the times they need it the most," Mucciolo told Patch. "Harry Chapin was on to something when he started this and the D'Addarios have been avid and active donors for 15+ years."

Janet D'Addario, the late co-founder of the company, served on the Long Island Cares board for a dozen years.

"Being able to bring people together over music to raise awareness and reduce the stigma around food insecurity is important to us," Mucciolo said. "We proudly live and work here on Long Island — making the world's best guitar strings, drum heads, drum sticks, and reeds — so it's important to us to support the community that we all live in and raise our families in."

Long Island Cares is hoping to raise between $3,000 and $5,000 from the event, said Karen Sullivan, community development coordinator of the organization. The funds will help feed the more than 221,000 food-insecure Long Islanders, over 68,000 of whom are children, Sullivan said.

Sullivan said Summer Jam is a fitting benefit for Long Island Cares, as the food bank was founded by Harry Chapin, a singer/songwriter and Huntington resident.

"We have supported the humane needs of Long Islanders for over 40 years," Sullivan said. "D’Addario employees are very talented artists in their own right and put on a great show playing so many fan favorites in rock music."

D'Addario plans to put forth a solo performer, a husband and wife duo, a trio, and then full bands. FiveStone, a Long Island band featuring two D'Addario employees, will close out the night with a Billy Joel tribute set. Mucciolo plans to play original music with his guitar alongside trombone and saxophone players.

"Playing music with my colleagues is one of the best perks of my job," Mucciolo said. "We have a ton of talented (and working) musicians who you can find playing all around Long Island. They play their own solo cover music at popular restaurants, in wedding bands, party bands and original music groups. D'Addario is a really cool company to work for when you are a musician, because you can walk down any aisle here and start a conversation and talk music."

D'Addario has been doing "Christmas Party James" for more than a decade and launched "Summer Jam" in 2017. The coronavirus halted the jams for a while until they were reinstated at the Jones Beach Band Shell in 2022.

This marks the first time the Town of Huntington is sponsoring the event in an "official" capacity, Mucciolo said.

"Hopefully we have a great turnout and can turn this into a yearly or biennial concert to support and raise awareness for Long Island Cares," he said.

Mucciolo said D'Addario is always looking for ways to bring its employees together over music, and the "Summer Fest" was formalized by Long Island Cares, the Town of Huntington, and co-founder Jim D'Addario.

Jim, in honor of his wife, Janet, connected Mucciolo with the food bank, where he has since taken a board seat. In the year-and-a-half he has been on the Long Island Cares Board, Mucciolo feels he has been able to continue some of Janet's work and keep music infused with Long Island Cares and Chapin's legacy.

Town of Huntington Supervisor Ed Smyth suggested to Jim D'Addario that they host the "Summer Jam" at Chapin Rainbow Stage.

"Jim then reached out to me to make it happen and coordinate with the town and LI Cares," Mucciolo said. "From there, we've developed a great band bill of D'Addario employees, food trucks, donation trucks, raffles, etc.!"

Patch has partnered with Feeding America since 2020 to help raise awareness in our local communities of hunger, a persistent national problem exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Feeding America, which supports 200 food banks and 60,000 local meals programs across the country, estimates that nearly 34 million people, including 9 million children — about 1 in 6 Americans — are living with food insecurity. This is a Patch social good project; Feeding America receives 100 percent of donations. Find out how you can donate in your community or find a food pantry near you.