John Schreiber

It's a remarkable gift.

And we, of course, couldn't be more grateful to Lee and Toby for making it.

It's an endowment gift.

We spend at NJPAC about $8 million a year on what we call social impact work.

That's work in arts education, community engagement, the intersection of arts and health.

Almost everything we do for community, and we are living in an under-resourced community of Newark, and Greater Newark is free to community.

So we reach 100,000 kids and families every year, and we are opening in about two years what is called the Coopman Center.

Lee made an earlier gift of $20 million that was a starter gift

for an education and community center 60,000 square feet on our campus that will be open six days a week.

Every activity we do there from to mothers and babies to older adults will be free to community.

And we want to endow that work.

Well, no matter what is happening in the economy or more broadly from the government, we can predictably deliver these important kind of life changing services to community.

And Lee and Toby made that possible with this gift.

Well, it's interesting.

It's a combination of real data and what we hear and learn from community.

So we did financial modeling that showed us what not only Lee's gift, but I hope to raise another $50 million in the next couple of years so that this work is endowed with $100 million.

And that will enable us, based on our research, to deliver services every year in a predictable fashion.

And then what we see with our kids and what we see with our families.

Sometimes this work can change a life.

I know it always enhances the lives of the people that we're engaged with.