The legendary Chubby Checker will perform live at the Lobero Theater, 7:30 p.m. Aug. 31 in a benefit for the Daniel Bryant Youth & Family Centers at the Council on Alcoholism & Drug Abuse (CADA).
All seats to Chubby Checker & the Wildcats are $25, although an additional donation can be made, CADA said.
Donations of $500 and higher will receive two backstage passes for a private meet-and-greet with Checker, starting at 6 p.m.
“The aim of a lower price is to provide wider access to the arts while attracting donations from those inspired to support this critical program that has served over 9,000 Santa Barbara County residents since its inception in 2001,” according to CADA.
Tickets can be purchased at www.lobero.org.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see this Grammy Award-winning American icon at a price everyone can afford,” said Earl Minnis of Earl Minnis Presents, producer of the event.
“We decided to take a different approach with this event and allow ticket purchasers the opportunity to purchase an affordable ticket with the option of making a larger contribution.”
Donations are tax-deductible.
Twister icon Checker is the only artist to have five albums in the Top 12 at one time and a song — “The Twist” — to be No. 1 twice. The groundbreaking tune also introduced the unique concept of “dancing apart to the beat.”
Checker’s success continued for years with the release of one dance record after another, with “The Fly” and “Let’s Twist Again,” for which he won a Grammy for the Best Rock Performance.
Over the next few years, an array of songs sprang up incorporating “The Twist” into their names — “Peppermint Twist,” “Twist and Shout,” and “Twistin’ the Night Away.”
Each new song inspired a new dance involving dancing apart, such as “The Jerk,” “The Hully Gully,” “The Boogaloo,” and “The Shake.”
At the forefront was Checker with “The Fly,” “The Pony,” and “The Hucklebuck.”
About the Daniel Bryant Youth & Family Centers:
Daniel Bryant grew up in Santa Barbara. He played baseball in is youth, and dreamed one day playing for his favorite team, the St. Louis Cardinals.
Unfortunately, somewhere between fifth and seventh grades, Bryant began using drugs, which led to a cycle of arrests and rehabilitation centers for heroin use.
In 1995, just as he seemed to be feeling more positive and hopeful, Bryant died of a drug overdose.
The Santa Barbara Daniel Bryant Youth & Family Center at CADA was founded in 2001 by Daniel’s father Bob Bryant to provide safe, effective outpatient treatment and other services for Santa Barbara County youth struggling with substance abuse and co-occurring mental health disorders.
Since then, two more centers have been opened to serve clients in the North County. Today, centers in Santa Barbara, Santa Maria and Lompoc provide a range of services to youth (ages 10-21) and their families.
The goal of the Daniel Bryant Youth and Family Centers is to reach those between ages 10-21, as studies have shown that youth drug and alcohol interventions have more successful outcomes than those for adults.
“We want to get to them before their brains are hardwired and it becomes almost impossible to treat them,” said Bryant. “I wished that we had known then what we know about brain development as it relates to addiction.
“We can only look forward and rescue as many of these youths as possible in the name of Daniel.”
Treatment can include group and individual counseling, psychotherapy, family therapy, drug testing, collateral sessions with parents and other support persons, case management with the school and community, and individual crisis counseling.
All treatment is available for both English- and Spanish-speaking clients and families, and can include gender-specific group therapy that provides teens with a safe environment to talk about their gender-specific issues.
No client is ever turned away for inability to pay, and scholarships are available.
The centers have also inspired the Summit for Danny Climbs in Santa Barbara County, https://summitfordanny.org/, and the international Summit for Danny Climb, which was held earlier this year in Chile, from Pucón to Puerto Varas; next year will be New Zealand South Island, https://sfdinternational.org/.
To learn more about the Daniel Bryant Youth & Family Centers and CADA, visit www.Cadasb.org.