On Friday, June 12th the Long Beach Party Project, in association with local after school program Long Beach BLAST (Better Learning After School Today), teamed up with various local clothing retailers including Buffalo Exchange, Francesca’s, Crooks & Castles, No Regrets, Covet, and others to put on the “After School Fashion Charity Benefit” with the aim of raising money for the Long Beach BLAST program. The event took place at the Shore Ultra Lounge (6200 e. 2nd Street – 562.277.4829) in Long Beach. With over 300 people in attendance to support charity, the event was a success in many people’s eyes, except the underprivileged kids the show was to benefit.

Upon conclusion of the night, LBPP was handed $210 by general manager, and Long Beach native, Ryan Ransom. While the cover at the door was set at $15, and with over 300 people in attendance, this small amount of compensation could not be correct. LBPP requested to see all numbers and documents from the night the following day. After repeated unsuccessful attempts to contact Ryan the Saturday following the show, a meeting was finally set up for Sunday. Upon meeting with the general manager of the Shore Ultra Lounge, LBPP was handed a copy of the door numbers (included below) along with a copy of the bar numbers as well. Immediately when asked why 188 people (about 2/3’s of overall attendance that night) were let in to the club free or “comped”, Ryan replies that this is “club policy” and that all the people that were let in without paying any cover were guests of the Shore Ultra Lounge and not there for the After School Fashion Charity event. On further investigation LBPP learned that many friends and acquaintances were actually let in free that were expressly there for the charity event. As part of the negotiations of the night the Shore requested a house guest list, which was asked to be kept “moderate, because the show is for charity”. When asked to produce a “house guest list” none could be produced, when asked how the club determines who is a “regular” as they put it, the response was, “we know who are people are”. No real answer was given when asked why the 95 people who did pay were only charged $10 instead of the advertised cover of $15. Doing the math, that turns out to be exactly $950 collected at the door, although according to the verbal agreement between LBPP and the Shore, LBPP was to pay for the clubs entertainment costs that are part of their regular Friday nights as well. This included one DJ at $400 and one circus act at $300. The Shore also stipulated that they take a standard %5 of all monies colleted at the door, leaving LBPP with $210 to donate to charity. The small amount was not even enough to cover the cost of one local band that played as part of the After School Fashion show, leaving the kids from the LB BLAST program with no donation and putting LBPP over $1000 in the negative.

As California cuts funding for education, after school programs are some of the first on the chopping block. These programs keep at-risk children off the streets by providing a safe environment to improve after school learning. On Friday, June 12th The Long Beach Party Project in conjunction with local charity BLAST (Better Learning After School Today) and Music Saves Lives.org will hold the “After School Fashion & Music Benefit” located at The Shore Ultra Lounge (6200 e. 2nd Street, Long Beach, Ca 90803). Proceeds from the event will be donated to the Long Beach BLAST program and Music Saves Lives.

Robert Garcia sits in front of me patiently doing a million things at once while trying to talk about the Get the Vote Out party at the Cellar that LBPP has decided to plan. We talked about a few city issues, but I had already done my homework and Robert has great ideas on how to turn Long Beach back into a great city, If you don't believe me... YouTube him, or check out RobertGarcia.com. In addition to the party we decided to register 100 brand new voters in the 1st district. We thought it would be cool to make some t-shirts and give them away to every new voter we registered, so Friday, March 20th there will be "I VOTE DOWNTOWN" tables with all the voter material and custom sprayed "I KICK IT DOWNTOWN" t-shirts.

KEEP READING FOR MORE INFO ON THE PARTY! read more (1 words)