Save Sag Harbor Benefit Sold Out

Like many bored teenagers, when Samanthe Lobosco, was in high school she and her friends would entertain themselves by driving around Main Street, Sag Harbor.

Despite the standard jaded, teenage feelings about small-town life, Lobosco says she would never want to see the small village she grew up in morph into another Village of East Hampton where one is more likely to track down a Gucci bag than a spool of thread.

So earlier this summer, Lobosco, a North Haven resident, reached out to Save Sag Harbor board member April Gornik with her plan to draw in a younger generation of supporters for the Save Sag Harbor movement with the help of her friend musician Alexa Ray Joel.

Joel is no stranger to the Save Sag Harbor cause, having performed last summer at a benefit that drew hundreds and raised thousands for the then fledgling not-for-profit, buoying the organization’s support system and bank balance. Daughter of famed musician Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley — both who have called Sag Harbor home — Joel considers Sag Harbor her hometown, and saving its Main Street from formula business stores, a personal cause she can get behind.

“This is our village too,” explained Lobosco on Tuesday. “Of course we want to help preserve it.”

On Saturday, August 30 Lobosco has organized a benefit concert featuring Alexa Ray Joel at the Sag Harbor Whaling and Historical Museum from 7 to 9 p.m. The event, designed to be for the whole family, is priced at $30 — a price Lobosco picked in an effort to make the evening affordable for a younger generation of Save Sag Harbor supporters, who like her, are recent college graduates or current students looking to get involved in their community.

The event will also feature artwork by local painter Cuca Romley in a silent auction, cheeses donated by Cavaniola's Gourmet Cheese Shop, wine from the Wolffer Estate Vineyards and baked goods from the newest Sag Harbor business, Amber Bakery on Long Island Avenue. Urban Zen was another business that chipped in, noted Lobosco, providing the tent for the benefit.

Save Sag Harbor, an incorporated not-for-profit, was originally conceived as a community-based group dedicated to preventing what they saw as the destruction of a mom-and-pop centric business district in Sag Harbor. It was formed last summer after pharmacy giant CVS announced they intended to set up shop in the Long Island Avenue building that now houses more than half-a-dozen businesses, including 7-Eleven.

For the last year, the organization has been focused on a Shop Locally campaign, as well as the village’s new zoning code, which in part is meant to preserve the small, historic and unique feel of Sag Harbor’s Main Street.

On Wednesday, Save Sag Harbor President Mia Grosjean said the organization was thrilled to have the support of Lobosco and Alexa Ray Joel, who she noted have planned virtually every aspect of Saturday’s benefit, giving the Save Sag Harbor board a much needed break.

“We need many hands on deck right now,” said Grosjean of the state of Sag Harbor and her organization’s concerns. “So much is happening in the village right now and we need more brains, we need more energy, we need more hands.”

Grosjean said this fundraiser was dedicated towards inspiring the next generation, but that the organization would push to find new members this year interested in taking an active role in the village. Currently, she added, the group’s main focuses are the proposed code and the condominium proposal at 1, 3 and 5 Ferry Road, which a number of Save Sag Harbor members have expressed reservations about.

As of Friday, August 29 the Save Sag Harbor benefit is SOLD OUT.