Sunday, July 17, 2011
CELEBRATED PHOTOGRAPHER TAMARA LACKEY ANNOUNCED AS PHOTOGRAPHER FOR CMEE FAMILY FESTIVAL
6:01 PM | 
Posted by
LEADERHUNTRESS |
The Children’s Museum of the East End announced that Tamara Lackey, world-renowned children’s and lifestyle photographer, author and host of the new web interview show reDefine, will donate her services and be the photographer for its annual benefit, the CMEE Family Fair, on July 23. Hosted by co-Chairs Mariska Hargitay, Ali Wentworth and Katie Brown, the Hamptons’ premier summer event seeks to raise $200,000 for year-round programming at the museum.
Lackey, whose photos have appeared in publications including Vogue and Town & Country and the TV series Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and whose most recent “edutainment” book plus DVD set is Tamara Lackey’s Capturing Life Through (Better) Photography™ http://bit.ly/nvSjLh says the event squares perfectly with her passionate commitment to charitable causes and what she calls her “delight and satisfaction in capturing what is most real and spontaneous in children.”
Tamara Lackey’s Capturing Life Through (Better) Photography™ will be available for sale in the Museum’s gift shop, MoonSoup, which will be open for business that day.
For the Children’s Museum of the East End, delight will likely register with old and young alike, and not only because the cuisine will include hot and dogs and cotton candy; entertainment will feature performers from the Big Apple Circus.
In 2010, the CMEE Family Fair saw record attendance of almost 800 guests and this year, the committee is planning for an even larger turnout approaching 1000. Executive Director Steve Long explains the importance of this benefit, “The Family Fair is a great way for CMEE to support its mission of promoting learning through play while raising the funds necessary to provide unique educational programs that address important issues facing families in our community.”
While CMEE remains the East End’s most visited museum and offers unparalleled children’s programming all summer long for seasonal visitors, the heart of the museum is their year-round involvement with the East End community and the opportunities they are providing to families in Eastern Long Island.
CMEE has developed a series of partnerships in the past few years that are designed especially to serve the East End community:
1. After learning that one in seven families on the East End is functionally illiterate and their children are twice as likely to be illiterate themselves, CMEE partnered with Sandpiper Music Together to promote literacy, language acquisition, and parenting skills.
2. In response to the long list of low-income families waiting for accessible pre-school in the East End, CMEE partnered with Head Start to house a pre-school inside the Museum for the first time.
3. CMEE collaborated with the Retreat to help families affected by domestic violence by offering job-skills training for parents in CMEE’s classroom while their children participate in the Museum’s programming.
4. In an effort to ensure that all children with physical and developmental disabilities can obtain the same educational and social benefits as other children, CMEE has worked with many partners in the community including the Child Development Center of the Hamptons, the Southampton Town Disabilities Committee, and the Flying Point Foundation for Autism.
CMEE’s Family Fair will be on July 23 from 10:30 am-1:30 pm at 376 Bridgehampton/Sag Harbor Turnpike in Bridgehampton. Advance purchase tickets are $150 for adults and $100 for children. For more information, please visit www.cmee.org or call 631-537-8250.