For the 24th year in a row, CATCH Neighborhood Housing hosted comedians in Concord to raise funds for affordable housing! The Capitol Steps returned on Thursday, March 29th and brought down the house with their unique political musical satire.
This year, audiences were treated to new renditions of “Wake Me Up in Mar-a-Lago,” “Oprah Homer,” “I’m Not Indicted!” and “All About the Base.” True to form, many of the songs had clearly been written in recent days or hours, as the news content was up to the minute!
Prior to the Capitol Steps taking the stage, CATCH also hosted its annual pre-show reception, which welcomed friends and guests in the Governor’s Hall to celebrate CATCH’s accomplishments in the past year. Bonnette, Page & Stone of Laconia was recognized as the Business of Year and was thanked for their fantastic work on the now completed Franklin Light & Power Mill, which recently created 45 units of affordable housing in downtown Franklin. Chris Harper-Fahey of NeighborWorks America was presented with tokens of our appreciation for her many years of support and advocacy for CATCH and congratulated on her nearing retirement! The 2018 Rising Star was awarded to Jeanine Tousignant, a tireless advocate for CATCH and the owner of Jeanine & Company. Merrimack County Savings Bank received the Housing Hero award for their endless support of CATCH; their first gift to CATCH was in 1994, in support of the first ever Comedy Night! The Helen M. Greene Visionary Award was presented to Commissioner Taylor Caswell, in honor of his many years of work and thoughtful leadership in the housing and economic development industries. Finally, our board chair, Mark Ciborowski, was surprised with the Volunteer of the Year award and a rousing thank you for all he has done to support affordable housing in greater Concord over the years!
Overall, the event raised close to $65,000 for CATCH’s affordable housing programs! CATCH wishes to thank all ticket purchasers, raffle ticket purchasers, the many sponsors, and community supporters for making Comedy Night a great success. We are grateful for your support in allowing us to create communities where every person is confident of a home!
A special thank you to the following organizations for their incredibly generous support of Comedy Night:
Center Stage Sponsor: Merrimack County Savings Bank
Spotlight Sponsors: Bonnette, Page & Stone, Milestone Engineering, Norton Insurance Agency, and Peoples United Bank
Red Carpet Sponsors: Dutton Outdoor Services, EDvestinU, Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, Franklin Savings Bank, Lincoln Financial Foundation, McLane Middleton, NeighborWorks America, New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority, Nobis Engineering, Northeast Delta Dental, Northern New England Housing Investment Fund, Otis Atwell, Sanel Automotive, Sulloway & Hollis
Star Sponsors: Brady Sullivan Properties, Ciborowski Associates, Cleveland, Waters & Bass, Cobb Hill Construction, Concord Regional VNA, Havenwood-Heritage Heights, Irish Electric, Lake Sunapee Bank, Mainstay Technologies, Mutual of America, Northway Bank, Orr & Reno, St. Mary's Bank, Sugar River Bank, US Housing Consultants
Hotel Sponsor: The Duprey Companies
Media Sponsors: Nazzy at WLNH, Red River Theatres
Pictured: The Capitol Steps pose back stage with CATCH President, Rosemary M. Heard, and representatives of our Center Stage Sponsor, Merrimack County Savings Bank, James Gallagher and Phil Emma.