Ask The J’s Board Chair Andrew Kaplan about KC SuperStar and he’ll tell you two things: It’s all about the kids and it’s a big event.
This is the 10th anniversary for SuperStar, an “American Idol” style competition that awards $22,000 in scholarships to the most talented high school singers in Kansas City. It regularly attracts more than 200 local teens, each vying for the $10,000 first place Edward and Ellen Rose Scholarship.
Each year, more than 1,000 people fill Yardley Hall for the finals. A limited number of tickets are available for this year’s edition set for 7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 25. Phillipa Soo, best known for originating the role of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton in the Broadway musical “Hamilton,” will host the event and perform. For more information, or to purchase tickets, contact Felice Azorsky at or 913-981-8895.
Jim Sluyter, The J’s president and CEO who has been with the organization 20 years, said the SuperStar fundraiser had come out of a brainstorming session that included staff and board members of The J. He recalls the idea originated with The J’s CEO at the time, Jacob Schreiber, who had worked on a similar fundraiser before coming to The J.
Sluyter said Herb Buchbinder, who also took charge of fundraising for The J’s previous fundraiser SportsNite, and Tammy Ruder, the cultural arts director at the time who today still serves as its executive producer/director, had turned SuperStar into a reality along with the inaugural chairs Susie Goldsmith and Robbie Small.
Buchbinder, as he’s done for decades, continues to do the bulk of the fundraising. He does it because he wants to see The J succeed.
“I believe in what The J is doing for our community and have high confidence in CEO Jim Sluyter to invest these funds wisely to ensure The J’s financial health,” Buchbinder said. “I also believe that SportsNite and now KC SuperStar provide significant entertainment value to our patrons.”
When all is said and done this year, Sluyter expects the fundraiser will have grossed about $8 million for The J. More than $5.6 million of that is net.
“It has grown in size dramatically,” he said. “I think the first year we only grossed $244,000 and it’s now well over a million.”
SuperStar is regularly rated one of the top fundraisers in the city, according to Independent Magazine. Last year the magazine ranked it No.9.
Much of the event’s success is due to the hard work Buchbinder has done over the years.
“This fundraiser, and Herb in particular because he did SportsNite before KC SuperStar, has really put The J on solid financial footing,” Sluyter said. “I don’t know that we would be entertaining an expansion without the support and the finances that we’ve received through all the years of SportsNite and KC SuperStar. That’s really put us on solid financial footing and helped us grow our impact on the community. It also has positioned us in a place where we can entertain expanding and growing our impact even more.”
Sluyter and Kaplan believe there are several reasons why the fundraiser is so popular. First and foremost, said Kaplan, is the kids vying for the scholarships.
“I personally believe everybody gets excited when they see these young people engaged and how talented they are,” Kaplan said.
Then there’s the Buchbinder touch.
“When you put the magic of Herb being able to orchestrate this along with all these bright young people, A plus B equals a really cool C,” Kaplan added.
It’s also a fun evening.
“So many fundraising events are important, but they are not as entertaining,” Sluyter said. “This is an entertaining event.”
Another thing that makes SuperStar stand out from other fundraisers is that every ticket holder is invited to attend the patron party.
“There are some events that only a certain level of people go to a patron party,” he said. “At SuperStar, everyone is invited to eat together and socialize, so I think people enjoy that aspect of it.”
SuperStar, Sluyter added, is just the way some people prefer to support The J.
“Rather than giving an annual gift, they show their support for the Jewish Community Center through the event itself,” he said.
Funds raised by SuperStar go toward financial assistance for all of The J’s youth programs — camp, early childhood, after school care and membership. In addition, it supports many other programs, such as Heritage Center, Arts + Culture and Jewish Experiences.
“I’d love to say that our programming pays for 100 percent of what we do, but it doesn’t,” Kaplan pointed out. “If we don’t have this kind of event, we would survive, but not thrive.”
Kaplan explained that, because of SuperStar, The J was in a position to not have to think about how to make ends meet every day. Instead, membership is at an all-time high and the organization is able to think about what it wants to accomplish down the road, not how to keep the doors open tomorrow.
“That’s incredibly helpful for us and important in that we can think about the long term and not just surviving,” Kaplan said. “That’s not the case with most nonprofits.”
A program like SuperStar, Sluyter believes, helps The J’s image throughout the greater Kansas City community.
“It breaks down those stereotypes and helps combat anti-Semitism when people feel very comfortable to participate in programming led by a Jewish organization and come into our doors,” he said. “I think it can’t help but build bridges to the greater community, especially with what’s going on in society these days.”
The J’s leaders noted that since the shooting occurred at the Jewish Community Campus in 2014, a portion of the proceeds had been donated to the Reat Griffen Underwood Rising Stars Fund in memory of Reat, who was 13 at the time he was murdered while on his way to attend SuperStar auditions.
“We will never, ever, ever forget what happened at our facility five years ago,” Kaplan said.
Kaplan has a unique perspective on the event because he and his wife, Sheryl, chaired it for two years. He said it was a great way for him to learn about the organization and how it works. The J’s next chair, Shanny Morgenstern, also chaired the event last year with her husband, Eric.
Kaplan has seen firsthand exactly what a “big deal” SuperStar is.
“How many kids (get the chance to be) on stage in front of an entire band performing in front of a thousand people at the Kauffman Center or at Yardley Hall?” he said. “It’s a big deal for parents and grandparents and friends and students. It’s an amazing thing.”
Over the years, many SuperStar finalists have excelled in performance arts. Several have competed, and gone far, on television’s “The Voice,” “American Idol” and “America’s Got Talent.” A couple of others have been part of national Broadway touring companies.
Getting to know the finalists, and watching them prepare, is an experience Kaplan will never forget.
“The fun part as the chair of this event is you get to go behind the scenes and watch these kids from that initial audition to being on ‘the big stage,’ and get to hang out with a Tony Award winner or a star,” he said. “This is a big-time production put on by big-time people.
“It doesn’t get any better than that.”