Farmington Teen's Performance Group To Host Petit Family Fundraiser

 

FARMINGTON—

— Student singers, who for the past two years have performed at nursing homes and assisted living facilities throughout Hartford County , will gather next month to pay tribute to Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters Hayley and Michaela, who were killed in a home invasion in 2007.

 

This will be the second year Arts From the Heart has raised money for the Petit Family Foundation. Last year, the group held a benefit concert and raised more than $4,000. William Petit , the father of Hayley and Michaela and the husband of Hawke-Petit, was the sole survivor and later established the foundation.

 

The concert, spearheaded by 14-year-old Danielle Hoffman of Farmington, is an opportunity for her and her friends to showcase their passion: performing. The Connecticut chapter of Arts From the Heart has been performing since 2010 and, most recently, performed at the Hospital for Special Care in New Britain .

Hoffman, currently an eighth-grader at Irving A. Robbins Middle School, got the idea for the group from her cousin Madison Steele, a pianist who founded a New Jersey chapter of the organization in 2006. Hoffman was so impressed with her cousin's work that she replicated it.

 

The coffeehouse fundraiser begins at 7 p.m. June 15 at the Farmington Community and Senior Center, 321 New Britain Ave., Unionville. Tickets are $10, or $5 for senior citizens and children under 14, and are available by calling 860-677-2900 or by email at ellen@ellenhoffman.com

For information on Arts From the Heart go to http://www.artsfromtheheart.us.

http://www.courant.com/community/farmington/hc-farmington-arts-from-the-heart-20120517,0,3883724.story?track=rss