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Watermark owners have raised $20,000 to support the Lakehouse Music Academy’s effort to bring a full music curriculum to Hope Academy Charter School.

The money will be donated to the “Play it Forward” foundation, a philanthropic program launched last year by Lakehouse Music Academy administered by the Asbury Park Musical Heritage Foundation.

Funds were raised by charging Watermark patrons $10 or $20 at the door on nights there was a concert on the Stone Pony Summerstage. The stage is visible from Watermark’s outside patio – a well-kept secret until last summer when the number of people headed to sit and watch a free show outnumbered the paying customers, according to Watermark co-owner and founder Russell Lewis [shown above, with Lakehouse Academy students and faculty].

Over 400 people showed up to camp out on the deck and watch a show last summer and the local fire marshal nearly shut the location down, he said, so a door charge was added to filter out the paying customers from free concertgoers.

After taking some heat through social media for the added charge, business owners decided to turn the negative impact on their business into a positive one for the community and elected to donate the proceeds to local environmental organizations, Lewis said.

“The second we did that, the whole energy surrounding the circumstances changed,” he said

Impressed with what Lakehouse owner Jon Leidersdorf had build after taking a tour of the building early in 2014, Lewis announced his intent to provide Lakehouse with all of the proceeds of concert nights when a cover was charged to further the academy’s mission to support “education, music, and kids in Asbury Park,” he said.

“We also thought the music tie-in would be easy for people to understand,” he said, since some patrons were showing up to watch a concert anyway. “It’s turned into something really positive and great.”

“I thought I was going to raise $10,000 and I raised twice as much,” said Lewis. “I’m still blown away that I raised $20,000.”

The funds will be used to underwrite a music program for Asbury Park’s Hope Academy Charter School and to grant scholarships for music education and instruments to Lakehouse students, according to Robert Lamont, Lakehouse Music Academy’s director of education.

Hope Academy hired the Lakehouse Academy to provide their music program in the fall and Lamont will design the curriculum to ensure it measures up to Common Core standards, he said.

Lamont, a veteran New York City public school teacher and founding faculty member of Gramercy Arts High School in Manhattan, said it is “wonderful” to be able to bring this program to Asbury Park. Lakehouse is also talking to public schools in Asbury Park and Neptune about future programs and after school music education, he said.

“I see music as a real hands-on way to develop 21st century skills – literacy, problem solving, self-discipline and competitiveness on a world class level,” Lamont said.

His mission is to promote literacy and develop programming that supports Asbury Park’s greater community of artist, and within his short time here so far [Lamont was hired in April], he’s noticed many people in the city have a mind to be of service.

“Anyway I can facilitate that and be a part of that – I’m there,” he said.

“What a fabulous city. What a fabulous bunch of business owners, educators and politicians we have here,” said Lakehouse owner Jon Liedersdorf. “We are so thrilled that Hope Academy has been working so hard to help put music education in their school – and this support from Russell is one of the key reasons this is able to happen.”

“Without Russell, we couldn’t do this,” said Lamont. “He is a visionary. I cannot say enough wonderful things about him.”

Lewis will host a cocktail reception at the end of the summer to present Lakehouse and the Musical Heritage Society with the funds.

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