Music Fundraiser to Benefit Camp Anchor

A Long Beach restaurant-bar is getting in on a fundraiser for a local camp this weekend.

The Rockville Centre-based Tommy Brull Foundation is holding its second annual  Shine A Light Music Festival this Saturday night at Wantagh's Mulcahy's Pub & Concert Hall to benefit Camp Anchor in Lido Beach, and fundraiser organizers will hold a tailgate happy hour at Swingbelly's in Long Beach's West End from 5-7 p.m.

The music fundraiser, scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. is being organized by the Brull Foundation, which was formed in 2008 by Martin Brull in memory of his brother Tommy, who was tragically killed in a car accident at the age of 23 on Christmas Eve 1999. Brull said the aim of the organization is to help people with physical, mental, and emotional challenges since one of his late brother’s passions was working with special needs children.

The primary organization the Brull Foundation lends supports to is Camp Anchor, a summer program for children with special needs in Lido Beach that is operated by the Town of Hempstead. Brull said he and his brother have had many friends work at Camp Anchor through the years and he would like to help the facility expand and be renovate to meet the needs of an increased amount of children enrolling in the program.

Last summer’s first annual Shine A Light Music Festival featuring the Rhode Island-based indie folk band Deer Tick raised $12,000 toward the construction of the Malone-Mulhall Recreation Center at Camp Anchor. The multi-purpose facility will be named in honor of three Camp Anchor counselors who died in a tragic car accident on July 15, 2010.

Scheduled to perform at Saturday’s fundraiser are Dean Wareham, The War on Drugs and Wormburner. The War on Drugs was recently featured on the Late Show with David Letterman and have played Bonaroo, Sasquatch and Lalapalooza festivals.

Bus service from Swingbelly's to Mulcahy's will be offered at 7 p.m. with a return trip dropping off at the bar as well as the Long Beach Long Island Rail Road Station.