User:JFA2009/wendyoxenhorn

Wendy Oxenhorn is Executive Director of The Jazz Foundation of America.

Born in Brooklyn, New York City, Oxenhorn started her career as a dancer in the New York City Ballet. At the age of seventeen she injured her knee, which abruptly put an end to her career as a dancer. She thought this was the end of the road for her. Oxenhorn said,"I called a suicide hot line. The woman on the other end of the phone was about 50 and her husband had just left her for a 25-year-old, and she started talking to me. So, after counseling her, I ended up working there within like three days." This began Wendy Oxenhorn's long career in nonprofit work. Oxenhorn has worked on countless non-profit projects.

In the early 1980's Oxenhorn started an organization with partner CarolAnn Ross, called "Children In Need.' They took 35 children from a welfare hotel and created a small and protective big brother big sister-type program that was meant to watch over children who mostly were left alone for sometimes days a time, and suffered from addicted parents, neglect and malnutrition. They gave these children unique experiences that they normally would never have had, like the ballet, the circus, restaurants, poetry readings, business offices. Oxenhorn then started a volunteer public school program called "Children of Substance," a support group helping middle-school-aged girls deal with drug addicted and alcoholic parents and bond with one another while learning they are no longer alone.

When the welfare hotel system was finally done away with in 1990, Oxenhorn co-founded STREETNEWS, the first newspaper sold by homeless men and women in the subways and streets of NYC in 1990. In its first year, it had a circulation of 250,000 and generated over half a million dollars to the homeless, creating work for over 2000 of New York 's homeless and jobless population. It also started 150 like-papers sold by the homeless in cities around the world. Ms. Oxenhorn was invited to the White House by the Bush Administration where she recruited then Chief-of-Staff John Sununu, onto her Board of Advisors. Her board included New York Times President, Lance Primis, Malcolm Forbes, CB Richard Ellis, CEO Stephen B. Siegel, and 35 CEO's of Fortune 500 Companies.

Oxenhorn then started a public school program called "Children of Substance" a support group helping middle school aged girls deal with drug addicted and alcoholic parents. Many of the girls suffered from Bulimia, depression, incest and suicidal thoughts. These meetings provided for the young women guest speakers, who were adult children of alcoholics. In this way the program aimed to provide these students with an opportunity to hear what someone else went through and inspire the women to share their own secrets and pain. It was a very successful program and the meetings continued for 2 years, even after the students graduated from Junior High School. http://www.jazzmuseuminharlem.org/archive.php?id=441

In 1999 Wendy Oxenhorn picked up the blues harmonica and began to play the blues. She soon met an elderly blues man from Mississippi by the name of Ted Williams who played in the subway stations to accompany. She left her day job to play the blues, taking a solo, then passing the tip bucket. Oxenhorn then met musician/composer Eliot Sharp, and asked him to play on a CD with her Mississippi mentor, who never had a real recording of his own unique style of blues. Sharp had a studio, where he did the recording for free, and gave them a CD to sell in the subways. They started to make some decent money with the CD. This was her first experience helping musicians.

In 2000 Oxenhorn went for an interview at The Jazz Foundation of America. "It wasn't my charitable resume with all my years experience that clinched it. When they heard I played blues harp in the train stations, they hired me on the spot." Oxenhorn said.

At the time, The Jazz Foundation of America had been assisting 35 cases a year in NYC. It has since become a national organization and now saves 1600 cases a year, including hundreds of New Orleans musicians who suffered from Hurricane Katrina. The Jazz Foundation has kept hundreds of elderly pioneers of this music from homelessness, eviction and hunger. It has housed and employed over 1000 musicians in the last 3 years, including hundreds from New Orleans with small children. Over eleven million dollars has been raised in the past nine years. Over 1000 uninsured musicians have received pro bono medical care and operations through their partnership with the angels of Englewood Hospital and Medical Center. Oxenhorn's personal approach saves musicians in crisis as if they were family and has touched the lives of countless legends. From Freddie Hubbard to Odetta, from Cecil Payne to Hank Crawford, Wendy Oxenhorn and the Jazz Foundation have been there.

Since Wendy Oxenhorn has been the Executive Director of the Jazz Foundation of America the organization has increased its capacity from 35 musicians a year to 60 cases a week. Since 2000, she has been instrumental in raising nearly 10 million dollars toward musician relief and in coordinating several hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of donated services in pro bono medical, legal and dental services for musicians each year. After Hurricane Katrina she led relief efforts for New Orleans musicians, assisting over 3500 emergency cases and helping hundreds of musicians with housing, relocation and employed over 1000 New Orleans musicians. She secured $250,000 of manufacturer-donated top shelf instruments for New Orleans. Each year she leads the production of a fundraiser gala at the Apollo Theater called "A Great Night in Harlem ." This year's event raised $1.5 million.

The former Bush Administration honored Ms. Oxenhorn at the White House for her accomplishments. Her efforts have been recognized on Regis and Kathy Lee, CBS Nightline, CBS Early Morning, ABC Nightly News, as well as the subject of articles in the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, PEOPLE Magazine and the Herald Tribune