The Loukoumi Foundation Will Host Benefit at Bond 45 Honoring Chita Rivera

The Loukoumi Foundation will honor Chita Rivera at a benefit event at Bond 45, in which she will accept the foundation's first Make a Difference ICON Award. Plus, the foundation will announce their first upcoming Good Deed visit to Puerto Rico.

Hosts for the event will be Judith Ann Abrams and Nick Katsoris.

The event will take place on Friday, December 1, from 6-9pm.

Learn more here.

The Loukoumi Foundation will be visiting Puerto Rico December 6-10, 2023 to work with over 1,000 students to make a difference through their good deeds. Activities include:

• Our Loukoumi Good Deed Bus traveling with children to several stops, doing good deeds at each

• A beach clean-up project at Rio Grande Beach, Aguada, PR

• A visit to and singing at Hogar del Carmen Senior Home

• A visit to and food donations to a local homeless shelter

• Holiday cheer and presents brought to an orphanage in Mayaguez, PR

• The Loukoumi Foundation will also broadcast to schools worldwide its Loukoumi Good Deed of the Month Zoom from the host school, Academia de la Inmaculada Concepcion School, in Mayaguez, a school that serves on the Loukoumi Foundation's International Good Deed Council with other schools in India, Tanzania, Italy, Greece, Newfoundland Canada, Los Angeles, New York and Ireland  

• Loukoumi Founder and Author Nick Katsoris will also host assemblies and good deed discussions at the Academia, as well as the Lydia Melendez School in Aguada.

• Please join in supporting this mission of Good Deeds that will also continue throughout the school year with year round Good Deed programming in Puerto Rico.

About Chita Rivera

A theatrical icon and one of Broadway greatest triple-threat talents, Chita Rivera is one of the most nominated performers in Tony Award history having earned 10 nominations, won twice and received the 2018 Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre. A versatile actress/singer/dancer, her most recent starring roles include The Visit, the final John Kander/Fred Ebb/Terrence McNally musical directed by John Doyle and choreographed by Graciela Daniele on Broadway; the Broadway revival of The Mystery of Edwin Drood; the Broadway and touring productions of The Dancer’s Life, a dazzling musical celebrating her spectacular career, written by Terrence McNally and directed by Graciela Daniele and the revival of the Broadway musical Nine with Antonio Banderas. She trained as a ballerina (from age nine) before receiving a scholarship to the School of American Ballet from the legendary choreographer George Balanchine. Chita’s first appearance (age 19) was as a principal dancer in Call Me Madam. Her electric performance as Anita in the original Broadway premiere of West Side Story brought her stardom, which she repeated in London. Her career is highlighted by starring roles in Bye Bye Birdie, The Rink (Tony Award), Chicago, Jerry’s Girls, Kiss of the Spider Woman (Tony Award), and the original Broadway casts of Guys and Dolls, Can-Can, Seventh Heaven and Mr. Wonderful. On tour: Born Yesterday, The Rose Tattoo, Call Me Madam, Threepenny Opera, Sweet Charity, Kiss Me Kate, Zorba, Can-Can with The Rockettes. Chita was awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2009 and received the coveted Kennedy Center Honor in 2002. In 2019, Chita performed her solo concert at London’s Cadogan Hall; in 2018 she was honored as a Living Landmark by the New York Landmarks Conservancy; in 2016 she headlined at Carnegie Hall and in 2015, Great Performances aired their special Chita Rivera: A Lot of Livin’ To Do, a retrospective of her extraordinary life and career nationally on PBS. Her current solo CD is entitled And Now I Swing. Chita’s long-awaited critically-acclaimed book CHITA: A MEMOIR, was published by HarperOne in April, 2023. Her most treasured production is her daughter, singer/dancer/ choreographer Lisa Mordente.

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