Welcome to the JTMF

Hello and welcome to the James Tolin Memorial Fund Blog. Five years ago, the JTMF was created to honor the memory of James Tolin, a local NJ actor who lost to HIV in 2002. Several of James' friends got together and decided to produce a play and donate the profits to The OPen Arms Foundation, an organization that had helped James through the most difficult time of his life. The play, Paul Rudnick's "Jeffrey," was a rousing succes and we raised over $7500.00 with just two performances. Before we knew it, we were a full-fledged fund raising company, and productions of Harvey Fierstein's "Torch Song Trilogy;" Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple;" Paul Rudnick's "Mr. Charles, Currently of Palm Beach" and Nicky Silver's "The Altruists" followed each June. The shows were accompanied by catered receptions and silent auctions, all of which combined to raise nearly $30,000 over the past four years. Two additional chairties - Graffiti Productions, which promotes Arts Education among inner-city youth at risk and The James Tolin Memorial Scholarship, which provides tuition assistance for Theatre Arts majors at Mercer County Community College - have also been added as Fund beneficiaries.

This year marks our Fifth Anniversary, and we are celebrating with a production of Charles Busch's hilarious Beach Blanket Spoof, "Psycho Beach Party," June 22nd and 23rd. A specail luau-themed reception is planned, along with an opening night Red Carpet Gala and an extra-special Silent Auction featuring items and memorabilia donated by many well-known, international celebrities (you'll have to stay tuned to find just who they are, but we promise, you won't be dissapointed).

So visit often. We'll keep you up to date with everything that's going on withe JTMF and our upcoming events with an entry every few days. And you can always stop by our website, www.jtmf.org, for more information. Thanks for reading. Come back soon.